Allometric scaling laws linking biomass and rooting depth vary across ontogeny and functional groups in tropical dry forest lianas and trees

There are two theories about how allocation of metabolic products occurs. The allometric biomass
partitioning theory (APT) suggests that all plants follow common allometric scaling rules. The
optimal partitioning theory (OPT) predicts that plants allocate more biomass to the organ capturing
the most limiting resource.

We used whole-plant harvests of mature and juvenile tropical deciduous trees, evergreen trees, and
lianas and model simulations to address the following knowledge gaps: 1) Do mature lianas comply
with the APT scaling laws or do they invest less biomass in stems compared to trees? 2) Do juveniles
follow the same allocation patterns as mature individuals? 3) Is either leaf phenology or life form a
predictor of rooting depth?

We found: 1) mature lianas followed the same allometric scaling laws as trees. 2) Juveniles and
mature individuals do not follow the same allocation patterns. 3) Mature lianas had shallowest coarse
roots and evergreen trees had the deepest...