Widely distributed species are normally subjected to spatial heterogeneity in environmental conditions. In sessile organisms like plants, adaptive evolution and phenotypic plasticity of key functional traits are the main mechanisms through which species can respond to environmental heterogeneity and climate change. While extended research has been carried out in temperate species in this regard...

Plant adaptations to the environment are limited, and therefore plants in similar environments may display similar functional and physiological traits, a pattern termed functional convergence. Evidence was examined for functional convergence among 28 evergreen woody shrubs from three plant communities of the semi-arid winter rainfall region of southern California. Both leaf and water relations ...

Quantifying the relevance of different plant traits for yield and quality under different growth conditions can improve the efficiency of a breeding programme. Crop models are powerful tools to give guidance to breeding, because model calculations enable the analysis of many different situations (sensitivity analysis and scenario studies). Three case studies of using crop growth models to evalu...

Previous studies have shown that a negative relationship exists between transpiration efficiency (TE) and carbon isotope discrimination (Delta) and between TE and specific leaf area (SLA) in Stylosanthes scabra. A glasshouse experiment was conducted to confirm these relationships in an F(2) population and to study the causal nature of these relationships through quantitative trait loci (QTL) an...

Initiatives to restore natural ecosystems have had little success in arid and hyperarid ecosystems. In this context, the natural seedling establishment is particularly affected by drought patterns and climatic variability. Likewise, the effect of plant provenance on forest restoration success remains unclear, although previous studies have concluded that some seed locations might be better able...

0 Species!pairs from woody dicot lineages were chosen as phylogenetically inde! pendent contrasts "PICs# to represent evolutionary divergences along gradients of rainfall and nutrient stress\ and within particular habitat types\ in New South Wales\ Australia[ Seedlings were grown under controlled\ favourable conditions and measurements were made for various growth\ morphological and allocation ...

Relationships between leaf traits and carbon assimilation rates are commonly used to predict primary productivity at scales from the leaf to the globe. We addressed how the shape and magnitude of these relationships vary across temporal, spatial and taxonomic scales to improve estimates of carbon dynamics. Photosynthetic CO2 and light response curves, leaf nitrogen (N), chlorophyll (Chl) concen...

Abstract Questions Do forest structural parameters related to stand heterogeneity enhance functional diversity (FD) of understorey plant communities? FD and composition communities vary between high‐forest (HF) old coppices‐with‐standard (oldCWS) management types? Are HF stands characterized by a higher than oldCWS? Location Submediterranean beech forests Montagne della Duchessa Reserve (centra...

Research Highlights: We found seasonal variation in frost resistance (FR) and plant performance which were affected by growth temperature. This helps to better understand ecophysiological processes the light of climate change. Background Objectives: FR photosynthesis are important characteristics that vary with season. The aim this study was find out whether there is a FR, photosynthetic CO2 as...

In South China, the photosynthetic characteristics of an invasive exotic weed Mikania micrantha H.B. Kunth and its indigenous close congener Mikania cordata (Burm. f.) B.L. Robinson were studied. Mikania micrantha exhibited a greater biochemical capacity for photosynthesis than M. cordata, as the former had higher V cmax and J max , which lead to its higher maximum assimilation rate (A max ) va...