Earth System Models typically use static responses to temperature to calculate photosynthesis and respiration, but experimental evidence suggests that many plants acclimate to prevailing temperatures. We incorporated representations of photosynthetic and leaf respiratory temperature acclimation into the Community Land Model, the terrestrial component of the Community Earth System Model. These p...

BACKGROUND India is rich with biodiversity, which includes a large number of endemic, rare and threatened plant species. Previous studies have used DNA barcoding to inventory species for applications in biodiversity monitoring, conservation impact assessment, monitoring of illegal trading, authentication of traded medicinal plants etc. This is the first tropical dry evergreen forest (TDEF) barc...

Invasion by mats of free-floating plants is among the most important threats to the functioning and biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems ranging from temperate ponds and ditches to tropical lakes. Dark, anoxic conditions under thick floating-plant cover leave little opportunity for animal or plant life, and they can have large negative impacts on fisheries and navigation in tropical lakes. Her...

The corn cyst nematode Heterodera zeae [1], was first detected on the roots of maize collected from Rajasthan, India [1-3]. The pest has subsequently been reported to be present in Pakistan [35], Thailand [2,6], Egypt [7], Greece [8]. Portugal [9] and Virginia and Maryland in the USA [2,10,11] Heterodera zeae is restricted to warmer tropical and sub-tropical areas. And its distribution can be s...

Subtropical and tropical forests are biodiversity hotspots, and untangling the spatial scaling of their diversity is fundamental for understanding global species richness and conserving biodiversity essential to human well-being. However, scale-dependent diversity distributions among coexisting taxa remain poorly understood for heterogeneous environments in biodiverse regions. We show that dive...

The lush green vegetation of moist tropical forest is not what it appears. Dissolve away all the plant matter from the dense foliage, giant buttressed trunks, tangled lianas, and sinuous roots, and a ghostly fungal shadow of the forest will remain. These fungi—diverse symbionts that include mutualists, commensals, and parasites—play critical roles in the dynamics, diversity, structure, and func...

Forage plants introduced to Hawai`i have come from both temperate and tropical areas of the world. Although introduced species have changed the face of the landscape, they have often failed to provide long-term benefits to the livestock industry. Proper management of rangelands can result in increased livestock productivity and reduce the need for further introductions of forage plants. Almost ...

In the tropics, the high diversity of species at all trophic levels combined with increased chemical defense and predation intensity create ideal opportunities for interesting research in community ecology. Two particularly useful themes in the realm of tropical tritrophic interactions are trophic cascades and coevolution, and prominent hypotheses generated by these ideas should continue to pro...

THE ECOLOGICAL RELEVANCE OF MATURATION DRYING DETERMINES DEHYDRIN EXPRESSION IN SEEDS In areas exhibiting typical seasonal changes, the seeds of most plants are getting mature in summer and fall, respectively. In order to prevent the destruction of the young and sensitive seedlings by the frosty winter conditions, any germination in fall has to be hindered. Accordingly, efficient outlasting mec...