3.3.1. Determination of the seasonal time course of leaf area per
plant
The seasonal time course of leaf area per plant (LA) was determined
as a function of PTIsum (Eq. (4)) by curve fitting data of Exp
2 (Fig. 3a):
LA(j) = LAmax ×
1 − exp
−r5 × PTIsum(j)
LAmax
(4)
where LA(j) is the leaf area per plant (m2 plant−1) on day j; LAmax is
the maximum value of LA in the growing season (m2 plant−1), r5 is
the increasing rate of LA with PTIsum (m2 plant−1(MJm−2)−1).