Why are leaves hydraulically vulnerable?

Why are leaves hydraulically vulnerable?

As plant tissues dehydrate, water transport efficiency declines, a process typically attributed to air obstruction (embolism) in the xylem. Trifiló et al. (pages 5029– 5039) dissect leaf hydraulic vulnerability and show that both xylem and living tissues may be important. If confirmed and clarified, an important role for outside-xylem hydraulic decline will change our understanding of how plant...

Why Are Bonsai Leaves Small?

where they make those critical decisions that govern their lives. You who garden certainly know that plants have a mind of their own. Given that humans, and the majority of animals, solve many of their stressful problems (say, hunger) with a change in behavior (foraging for food), where are these decisions made in plants? An intriguing, and visually pleasing, example of such decision-making can...

Why tropical forest lizards are vulnerable to climate warming.

Biological impacts of climate warming are predicted to increase with latitude, paralleling increases in warming. However, the magnitude of impacts depends not only on the degree of warming but also on the number of species at risk, their physiological sensitivity to warming and their options for behavioural and physiological compensation. Lizards are useful for evaluating risks of warming becau...

Why are evergreen leaves so contrary about shade?

Leaf mass per area (LMA) is one of the most widely measured of all plant functional traits. In deciduous forests, there is similarity between plastic and evolutionary responses of LMA to light gradients. In evergreens, however, LMA is lower in shaded than sunlit individuals of the same species, whereas shade-tolerant evergreens have higher LMA than light-demanders grown under the same condition...

The Most Vulnerable Children: Who They Are and Why They Are at Risk