The -3/2 law of self-thinning in plants argues that the mean weight W of surviving trees in a stand increases while their number N decreases, related by
W = cN-3/2.
Suppose 104 trees start out with mass of 0.001 kg. Graph the relationship, and find how heavy the trees would be when only 100 remain alive, and again when only 1 remains alive. Is the total mass larger or smaller than when it started?
Many measurements in biology are related by power functions. For the above, graph the second measurement as a function of the first on both ordinary and double-log graphs.