© 2001 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Canopy structure and light interception in Quercus petraea seedlings in relation to light regime and plant density
Laetitia Farque (1), Hervé Sinoquet (2) and Francis Colin (1)
1. UMR INRA-ENGREF Ressources forêt-bois, Equipe Croissance et Qualité des Bois, 54280 Champenoux, France / 2. UMR PIAF, INRA-Université Blaise Pascal, Site de Crouelle, 234 avenue du Brezet, 63039 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex 2, France / Received October 16, 2000
Summary
Foliage structure was measured on 1- and 2-year-old Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. seedlings grown in 100 or 18% sunlight at a planting density of 2.8 or 25 plants per m2. A three-dimensional digitizing device was used to acquire the spatial position and orientation of all leaves within the
seedlings and of all seedlings within the plot. The data were used to obtain (1) quantitative information on canopy structure,
including leaf area index (LAI), seedling leaf area, number of leaves, leaf area density and leaf orientation; and (2) structural
information on foliage arrangement from virtual images to estimate light interception by individual seedlings (STAR) and light
partitioning among seedlings. During the second year, shading significantly reduced total leaf area and number of leaves but
increased individual leaf area. The STAR was greater for seedlings in shade than in full sunlight because of the more horizontal
orientation of leaves. Leaf area density was unaffected by the full sun treatments, and changes in leaf area dispersion had
no effect on light-interception efficiency. No plant density effect was observed during the first year. During the second
year, only the high plant density treatment induced mutual shading between seedlings, resulting in greater competition for
light among seedlings in the full sun treatment than in the shade treatment. The small treatment-induced changes in light
interception indicate that Q. petraea has low morphological plasticity of foliage structure compared with other species.
Keywords:
3-D digitizing, foliage structure, initial spacing, leaf arrangement, leaf area, morphological plasticity, shade, STAR.
