Is logarithmic transformation necessary in allometry? Ten, one-hundred, one-thousand-times yes

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

Volumn 111, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 230-233

  Mascaro, Joseph ^a   Litton, Creighton M ^b   Hughes, R Flint ^c   Uowolo, Amanda ^c   Schnitzer, Stefan A ^d,e  

^a GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII   (United States)

^c USDA FOREST SERVICE   (United States)

^d UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE   (United States)

^e SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE   (Panama)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84890442610     PISSN: 00244066     EISSN: 10958312     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/bij.12177     Document Type: Note

References (13)

1. Asner GP, Mascaro J, Muller-Landau HC, Vieilledent G, Vaudry R, Rasamoelina M, Hall JS, van Breugel M. 2012. A universal airborne LiDAR approach for tropical forest carbon mapping. Oecologia 168: 1147-1160.
2. Baskerville G. 1972. Use of logarithmic regression in the estimation of plant biomass. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 2: 49-53.
3. Chave J, Andalo C, Brown S, Cairns MA, Chambers JQ, Eamus D, Folster H, Fromard F, Higuchi N, Kira T, Lescure J-P, Nelson BW, Ogawa H, Puig H, Riera B, Yamakura T. 2005. Tree allometry and improved estimation of carbon stocks and balance in tropical forests. Oecologia 145: 87-99.
4. Glazier DS. 2013. Log-transformation is useful for examining proportional relationships in allometric scaling. Journal of Theoretical Biology 334: 200-203.
5. Huxley JS. 1932. Problems of relative growth. New York City: Dial Press.
6. Jenkins JC, Birdsey RA, Pan Y. 2001. Biomass and NPP estimation for the Mid-Atlantic Region (USA) using plot-level forest inventory data. Ecological Applications 11: 1174-1193.
7. Kerkhoff AJ, Enquist BJ. 2009. Multiplicative by nature: why logarithmic transformation is necessary in allometry. Journal of Theoretical Biology 257: 519-521.
8. Mascaro J, Litton CM, Hughes FR, Uowolo A, Schnitzer SA. 2011. Minimizing bias in biomass allometry: model selection and log-transformation of data. Biotropica 43: 649-653.
9. Muller-Landau HC, Condit RS, Chave J, Thomas SC, Bohlman SA, Bunyavejchewin S, Davies S, Foster R, Gunatilleke S, Gunatilleke N, Harms KE, Hart T, Hubbell SP, Itoh A, Kassim AR, LaFrankie JV, Lee HS, Losos E, Makana JR, Ohkubo T, Sukumar R, Sun IF, Supardi NMN, Tan S, Thompson J, Valencia R, Munoz GV, Wills C, Yamakura T, Chuyong G, Dattaraja HS, Esufali S, Hall P, Hernandez C, Kenfack D, Kiratiprayoon S, Suresh HS, Thomas D, Vallejo MI, Ashton P. 2006. Testing metabolic ecology theory for allometric scaling of tree size, growth and mortality in tropical forests. Ecology Letters 9: 575-588.
10. Niklas KJ. 2006. A phyletic perspective on the allometry of plant biomass-partitioning patterns and functionally equivalent organ-categories. New Phytologist 171: 27-40.
11. Packard GC. 2013. Is logarithmic transformation necessary in allometry? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 109: 476-486.
12. Packard GC, Boardman TJ. 2008. Model selection and logarithmic transformation in allometric analysis. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 81: 496-507.
13. Schnitzer SA, DeWalt SJ, Chave J. 2006. Censusing and measuring lianas: a quantitative comparison of the common methods. Biotropica 38: 581-591.