Allometric equations for estimating the leaf area of Thespesia populnea by linear dimensions of leaf blades

• Autor(a) principal: Ribeiro, João Everthon da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Coêlho, Ester dos Santos, Dias, Thiago Jardelino, Albuquerque, Manoel Bandeira de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Iheringia. Série Botânica
• Texto Completo: https://isb.emnuvens.com.br/iheringia/article/view/1134
• topic: Malvaceae; non-destructive method; regression models; biometria; Malvaceae; método não destrutivo; modelos de regressão

Thespesia populnea (L.) Sol. ex Corrêa is a tree species used for medicinal and ornamental purposes in different regions of the world. The determination of the leaf area is importance in studies related to the growth, physiology, and reproduction of the species. Therefore, the objective of the research was to obtain an allometric equation to estimate the leaf area of T. populnea using linear dimensions of the leaf blades. 300 leaf blades were collected in fragments of restinga forest, located in the municipality of Canguaretama, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The models used were: linear, linear without intercept, quadratic, cubic, power and exponential. The choice of the best equation was based on the determination coefficient (R²), Pearson’s linear correlation coefficient (r), Willmott’s agreement index (d), CS index (CS), Akaike information criterion (AIC), error mean absolute (MAE) and root of the mean square error (RMSE). The equations obtained with the product between length and width (LW) can estimate the leaf area of T. populnea, however the equation ŷ = 0.69 * LW1.01 using the power model was the most indicated to accurately estimate the leaf area of the species (R²=0.9962; r=0.9953; d=0.997; CS=0.993; AIC=1198.1; MAE=1.363; RMSE=2.107).