In many plants belonging to angiosperms and gymnosperms the accumulation in leaves of long chain polyprenols and polyprenyl esters during growth in natural habitats depends on the light intensity. The amount of polyprenols in leaves is also positively correlated with the thickness of the leaf blade (SLA, specific leaf area). The polyprenol content of leaves shows seasonal changes with a maximum...

A study was conducted on a Red Bay sandy loam soil (Rhodic Paleudult) in Jay, Florida, USA, to investigate how interspecific interactions between pecan (Carya illinoensis K. Koch) and cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) would affect cotton leaf morphology and gas exchange and thereby biomass and lint yield. We quantified specific leaf area (SLA), specific leaf nitrogen (SLN), net photosynthesis (A),...

Patterns of trait variation may be adaptive when vary in relation to an environmental gradient. In particular, leaf traits can affect productivity and competitive ability. We identify patterns of leaf size and shape variation with environmental heterogeneity in one of the most widespread tree species within temperate South America: Embothrium coccineum (Proteaceae). We collected leaf specimens ...

Cover crops can produce ecosystem services during the fallow period, as reducing nitrate leaching and producing green manure. Crop growth rate (CGR) and crop nitrogen acquisition rate (CNR) can be used as two indicators of the ability of cover crops to produce these services in agrosystems. We used leaf functional traits to characterise the growth strategies of 36 cover crops as an approach to ...

Invasive species success may depend on ecophysiological attributes present in their native area or derived from changes that took place in the invaded environment. We studied the growth and photosynthetic capacity of Berberis darwinii shrubs growing under different light conditions (gap, forest edge and below the canopy) in their native area of Patagonia, Argentina. Leaf photosynthesis results ...

Above- and belowground tissues of co-occurring saplings (0.1-1 m height) of Acer saccharum Marsh. (very shade tolerant), Acer rubrum L. (shade tolerant), Fraxinus americana L. (intermediate shade tolerant), and Prunus serotina Ehrh. (shade intolerant) were harvested from a forest understory to test the hypothesis that the pattern of biomass allocation varied predictably with shade-tolerance ran...

the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different potassium (k) and nitrogen (n) concentrations in nutrient solution and their interaction on growth and quality of tomato transplants. a full factorial experimental design was carried out with three potassium concentrations (1.5, 3 and 6 meql-1) and three nitrogen concentrations (1.5, 3 and 6 meql-1) for 27 days after seed germination...

1. Given the rapid and reversible impact of the environment on plant ecophysiological traits, it has been speculated that such traits may have low heritabilities, high phenotypic plasticity and experience selection which is highly variable. 2. We estimated heritabilities, phenotypic plasticity and natural selection on five ecophysiological traits (carbon : nitrogen (C : N) ratio, leaf water con...

Our understanding of leaf acclimation in relation to temperature of fully grown or juvenile tree crowns is mainly based on research involving spatially uncontrolled growth temperature. In this study, we test the hypothesis that leaf morphology and chemical elements are modulated by within-crown growth temperature differences. We ask whether within-species variation can influence acclimation to ...

The ability to predict which alien plants will transition from naturalized to invasive prior to their introduction to novel regions is a key goal for conservation and has the potential to increase the efficacy of weed risk assessment (WRA). However, multiple factors contribute to plant invasion success (e.g., functional traits, range characteristics, residence time, phylogeny), and they all mus...