Price scaling.pdf (1.78 MB)
The influence of branch order on optimal leaf vein geometries: Murray's law and area preserving branching
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 22:11 authored by Price, CA, Knox, S-JC, Timothy BrodribbTimothy BrodribbModels that predict the form of hierarchical branching networks typically invoke optimization based on biomechanical similitude, the minimization of impedance to fluid flow, or construction costs. Unfortunately, due to the small size and high number of vein segments found in real biological networks, complete descriptions of networks needed to evaluate such models are rare. To help address this we report results from the analysis of the branching geometry of 349 leaf vein networks comprising over 1.5 million individual vein segments. In addition to measuring the diameters of individual veins before and after vein bifurcations, we also assign vein orders using the Horton-Strahler ordering algorithm adopted from the study of river networks. Our results demonstrate that across all leaves, both radius tapering and the ratio of daughter to parent branch areas for leaf veins are in strong agreement with the expectation from Murray’s law. However, as veins become larger, area ratios shift systematically toward values expected under area-preserving branching. Our work supports the idea that leaf vein networks differentiate roles of leaf support and hydraulic supply between hierarchical orders.
Funding
Australian Research Council
History
Publication title
PLOS OneVolume
8Issue
12Article number
e85420Number
e85420Pagination
1-12ISSN
1932-6203Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Public Library of SciencePlace of publication
San Francisco, USARights statement
Copyright 2013 Price et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedRepository Status
- Open