Do trees have constant branch divergence angles?
JournalArticle (Originalarbeit in einer wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift)
ID
4612932
Author(s)
Beyer, Robert M.; Basler, David; Raumonen, Pasi; Kaasalainen, Mikko; Pretzsch, Hans
Author(s) at UniBasel
Basler, David
Year
2020
Title
Do trees have constant branch divergence angles?
Journal
Journal of theoretical biology
Volume
512
Pages / Article-Number
110567
Abstract
Many herbaceous plants feature remarkably regular arrangements of lateral organs along the central axis. These phyllotactic patterns are generated by a constant divergence angle between successive buds (or whorls thereof) that first appears at the shoot apircal meristem and is maintained across later ontogentic stages when it can be observed at the macroscopic scale. Do the branches along a tree trunk exhibit similar patterns? Here we use branch skeleton data derived from terrestrial laser scans to empirically estimate the distributions of the divergence angles between successive branches along the trunks of mature European beech, Norway spruce, and Scots pine trees. We find that rather than clustering around a particular value, species-specific branch divergence angles feature statistical properties characteristic of a uniform distribution. We hypothesise this to be the result of the stochasticity in bud development and branch shedding, and provide a rigorous mathematical proof that even when the divergence angle between successive lateral buds is constant, the observed distribution of branch divergence angles will approximate a uniform distribution if bud mortality and branch shedding rates are high.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
ISSN/ISBN
1095-8541
edoc-URL
https://edoc.unibas.ch/80833/
Full Text on edoc
No
Digital Object Identifier DOI
10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110567
PubMed ID
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33359208
ISI-Number
33359208
Document type (ISI)
Journal Article
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