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Estimating the available surface area of plants is of crucial importance for ecologists interested in epiphytic flora and fauna. However, surface area measurements can be highly time-consuming, especially in the case of heavybranched macrophytes. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between biomass and plant surface, in order to use biomass as a proxy for surface area, and to search for eventual seasonal variability. We quantified the surface-biomass relationship (SBR) as well as the surface/biomass ratio (RSA) and tested the effect of season for five macrophytes: Chara fragifera, Juncus bulbosus, Lagarosiphon major, Lobelia dortmanna and Phragmites australis. Furthermore, we tested the influence of the sampling position along the stem for the submerged macrophyte Egeria densa. We found a significant correlation between surface area and biomass for all species, suggesting that biomass could be a good surrogate of surface area. However, the SBR and RSA of C. fragifera, L. dortmanna and P. australis varied significantly with the season. For the caulescent species E. densa, the position of the sampling shoot along the stem resulted significant, with a non-significant SBR in the basal section of the stem. We conclude that biomass can be used as a proxy of surface area, but recommend the calibration of models for each investigated species, sampling season and shoot fragment.
Keywords: Lake, Leaf area, Epiphyte, Plant morphology, Season, Stem

A retrouver ici : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304377017301110?via%3Dihub