A NON-DESTRUCTIVE METHOD FOR ESTIMATING LEAF AREA OF Ceiba glaziovii (Kuntze) K. Schum.

Resumo

The determination of leaf area is of fundamental importance in studies involving ecological and ecophysiological aspects of forest species. The objective of this research was to adjust an equation to determine the leaf area of Ceiba glaziovii as a function of linear measurements of leaves. Six hundred healthy leaf limbs were collected in different matrices, with different shapes and sizes, in the Mata do Pau-Ferro State Park, Areia, Paraíba state, Northeast Brazil. The maximum length (L), maximum width (W), product between length and width (L.W), and leaf area of the leaf limbs were calculated. The regression models used to construct equations were: linear, linear without intercept, quadratic, cubic, power and exponential. The criteria for choosing the best equation were based on the coefficient of determination (R²), Akaike information criterion (AIC), root mean square error (RMSE), Willmott concordance index (d) and BIAS index. All the proposed equations satisfactorily estimate the leaf area of C. glaziovii, due to their high determination coefficients (R² ≥ 0.851). The linear model without intercept, using the product between length and width (L.W), presented the best criteria to estimate the leaf area of the species, using the equation 0.4549*LW.