BACKGROUND AND AIMS Light quantity and quality affect internode lengths in cucumber (Cucumis sativus), whereby leaf area and the optical properties of the leaves mainly control light quality within a cucumber plant community. This modelling study aimed at providing a simple, non-destructive method to predict final internode lengths (FILs) using light quantity and leaf area data. METHODS Sever...

Statistical and radiative-transfer physically based studies have previously demonstrated the relationship between leaf water content and leaf-level reflectance in the near-infrared spectral region. The successful scaling up of such methods to the canopy level requires modeling the effect of canopy structure and viewing geometry on reflectance bands and optical indices used for estimation of wat...

Experimental evidence indicates that the stomatal conductance and nitrogen concentration ([N]) of foliage decline under CO2 enrichment, and that the percentage growth response to elevated CO2 is amplified under water limitation, but reduced under nitrogen limitation. We advance simple explanations for these responses based on an optimisation hypothesis applied to a simple model of the annual ca...

Many current vegetation–atmosphere models require structural information describing the canopy in order to calculate rates of mass and energy exchange. One of the most important pieces of information is the variation with height in leaf area density, ρ (m2 leaf area per m3 canopy volume), but it is notoriously difficult to measure this in forest canopies. Consequently, very few data on ρ exist ...