Vein system resilient to damage: plants

1 of 2 Leaf veins / Jina Lee / License

The vein systems in some plant leaves are resilient to damage because they contain a high density of closed, interconnected loops.

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New way to design distribution networks

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[Collapse all sections] Summary

"Leaf venation is a pervasive example of a complex biological network, endowing leaves with a transport system and mechanical resilience. Transport networks optimized for efficiency have been shown to be trees, i.e., loopless. However, dicotyledon leaf venation has a large number of closed loops, which are functional and able to transport fluid in the event of damage to any vein, including the primary veins. Inspired by leaf venation, we study two possible reasons for the existence of a high density of loops in transport networks: resilience to damage and fluctuations in load. In the first case, we seek the optimal transport network in the presence of random damage by averaging over damage to each link. In the second case, we seek the network that optimizes transport when the load is sparsely distributed: at any given time most sinks are closed. We find that both criteria lead to the presence of loops in the optimum state." (Katifori et al. 2010:048704)

About the inspiring organism

Magnoliopsida
Magnoliopsida

Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: New way to design distribution networks based on the veins that carry water and nutrients in most plant leaves

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: City planning, emergency planning, utilities

Experts

The Magnasco Laboratory
Marcelo O. Magnasco
The Rockefeller University

References

Katifori E; Szöllősi GJ; Magnasco MO. 2010. Damage and fluctuations induce loops in optimal transport networks. Physical Review Letters. 104(4): 048704 - 048708.

Corson F. 2010. Fluctuations and redundancy in optimal transport networks. Physical Review Letters. 104(4):

Vein system resilient to damage: plants

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