Author: Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832520863
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Book Description
Leaf functional traits: Ecological and evolutionary implications
Author: Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832520863
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 187
Book Description
Ecological and Evolutionary Patterns Among Stem and Leaf Functional Traits in Helianthus
Author: Alex John PilotePublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 244
Book Description
Plant functional traits are hypothesized to co-vary and have been often interpreted as reflecting resource strategies for acquisition, transport, and use of carbon, water, and nutrients. These trait combinations are expected to range along a continuum from "fast", resource-acquisitive trait values to "slow", resource-conservative values. This dissertation focuses on leaf and stem functional traits related to tissue structure and water transport for the sunflower genus, Helianthus, which encompasses wild species from diverse habitats across the North American continent and cultivated H. annuus. Using a comparative approach and common garden greenhouse studies, expected stem and leaf trait co-variation was examined from three complementary perspectives: evolutionary diversification of wild species, evolutionary responses to artificial selection, and ecological responses. At the evolutionary scale, a comparison of stem and leaf traits for 14 wild species provided evidence of correlated trait evolution and adaptive differentiation associated with habitat climate. The effects of crop domestication were assessed by comparison of two varieties of domesticated H. annuus (ancient landraces and modern improved cultivars) with its wild progenitor. This comparison revealed that this suite of leaf and stem traits did not shift in a coordinated fashion in response to the artificial selective pressures of crop domestication. Additionally, trait shifts were found to be inconsistent in comparison of these two forms of domestications (i.e. wild to ancient landraces v. wild to improved cultivar). In response to the abiotic stress of water limitation, leaf and stem traits of six wild sunflower species shifted in a coordinated fashion towards more resource-conservative trait values. In conclusion, this dissertation provides evidence for correlated evolution of a suite of stem and leaf functional traits and the plastic responses of this suite of traits are observed to co-vary when species are subjected to water stress; however, these traits are not found to co-vary during the artificial selective process of crop domestication. This suggests that co-variation of these traits across wild taxa may be primarily due to selective pressures rather than hypothesized biophysical or genetic constraints.
Competition and Coexistence
Author: Ulrich SommerPublisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642561667
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
The question "Why are there so many species?" has puzzled ecologist for a long time. Initially, an academic question, it has gained practical interest by the recent awareness of global biodiversity loss. Species diversity in local ecosystems has always been discussed in relation to the problem of competi tive exclusion and the apparent contradiction between the competitive exclu sion principle and the overwhelming richness of species found in nature. Competition as a mechanism structuring ecological communities has never been uncontroversial. Not only its importance but even its existence have been debated. On the one extreme, some ecologists have taken competi tion for granted and have used it as an explanation by default if the distribu tion of a species was more restricted than could be explained by physiology and dispersal history. For decades, competition has been a core mechanism behind popular concepts like ecological niche, succession, limiting similarity, and character displacement, among others. For some, competition has almost become synonymous with the Darwinian "struggle for existence", although simple plausibility should tell us that organisms have to struggle against much more than competitors, e.g. predators, parasites, pathogens, and envi ronmental harshness.
Plant Functional Diversity
Author: Eric GarnierPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191074683
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285
Book Description
Biological diversity, the variety of living organisms on Earth, is traditionally viewed as the diversity of taxa, and species in particular. However, other facets of diversity also need to be considered for a comprehensive understanding of evolutionary and ecological processes. This novel book demonstrates the advantages of adopting a functional approach to diversity in order to improve our understanding of the functioning of ecological systems and their components. The focus is on plants, which are major components of these systems, and for which the functional approach has led to major scientific advances over the last 20 years. Plant Functional Diversity presents the rationale for a trait-based approach to functional diversity in the context of comparative plant ecology and agroecology. It demonstrates how this approach can be used to address a number of highly debated questions in plant ecology pertaining to plant responses to their environment, controls on plant community structure, ecosystem properties, and the services these deliver to human societies. This research level text will be of particular relevance and use to graduate students and professional researchers in plant ecology, agricultural sciences and conservation biology.
Physicochemical and Environmental Plant Physiology
Author: Park S. NobelPublisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0125200269
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 589
Book Description
"Physiology," which is the study of the function of cells, organs, and organisms, derives from the Latin physiologia, which in turn comes from the Greek physi- or physio-, a prefix meaning natural, and logos, meaning reason or thought. Thus physiology suggests natural science and is now a branch of biology dealing with processes and activities that are characteristic of living things. "Physicochemical" relates to physical and chemical properties, and "Environmental" refers to topics such as solar irradiation and wind. "Plant" indicates the main focus of this book, but the approach, equations developed, and appendices apply equalIy welI to animaIs and other organisms. We wilI specificalIy consider water relations, solute transport, photosynthesis, transpiration, respiration, and environmental interactions. A physiologist endeavors to understand such topics in physical and chemical terms; accurate models can then be constructed and responses to the internal and the external environment can be predicted. Elementary chemistry, physics, and mathematics are used to develop concepts that are key to under-standing biology -the intent is to provide a rigorous development, not a compendium of facts. References provide further details, although in some cases the enunciated principIes carry the reader to the forefront of current research. Calculations are used to indicate the physiological consequences of the various equations, and problems at the end of chapters provide further such exercises. Solutions to alI of the problems are provided, and the appendixes have a large tist of values for constants and conversion factors at various temperatures.
Environmental Physiology of Animals
Author: Pat WillmerPublisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444309226
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 768
Book Description
The new and updated edition of this accessible text provides a comprehensive overview of the comparative physiology of animals within an environmental context. Includes two brand new chapters on Nerves and Muscles and the Endocrine System. Discusses both comparative systems physiology and environmental physiology. Analyses and integrates problems and adaptations for each kind of environment: marine, seashore and estuary, freshwater, terrestrial and parasitic. Examines mechanisms and responses beyond physiology. Applies an evolutionary perspective to the analysis of environmental adaptation. Provides modern molecular biology insights into the mechanistic basis of adaptation, and takes the level of analysis beyond the cell to the membrane, enzyme and gene. Incorporates more varied material from a wide range of animal types, with less of a focus purely on terrestrial reptiles, birds and mammals and rather more about the spectacularly successful strategies of invertebrates. A companion site for this book with artwork for downloading is available at: www.blackwellpublishing.com/willmer/
Handbook of Trait-Based Ecology
Author: Francesco de BelloPublisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108472915
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 311
Book Description
Trait-based ecology is rapidly expanding. This comprehensive and accessible guide covers the main concepts and tools in functional ecology.
The Adaptive Landscape in Evolutionary Biology
Author: Erik SvenssonPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199595372
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
The 'Adaptive Landscape' has been a central concept in population genetics and evolutionary biology since this powerful metaphor was first formulated in 1932. This volume brings together historians of science, philosophers, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists, to discuss the state of the art from several different perspectives.
Plant Strategies
Author: Daniel C. LaughlinPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192693883
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
How do plants make a living? Some plants are gamblers, others are swindlers. Some plants are habitual spenders while others are strugglers and miserly savers. Plants have evolved a spectacular array of solutions to the existential problems of survival and reproduction in a world where resources are scarce, disturbances can be deadly, and competition is cut-throat. Few topics have both captured the imagination and furrowed the brows of plant ecologists, yet no topic is more important for understanding the assembly of plant communities, predicting plant responses to global change, and enhancing the restoration of our rapidly degrading biosphere. The vast array of plant strategy models that characterize the discipline now require synthesis. These models tend to emphasize either life history strategies based on demography, or functional strategies based on ecophysiology. Indeed, this disciplinary divide between demography and physiology runs deep and continues to this today. The goal of this accessible book is to articulate a coherent framework that unifies life history theory with comparative functional ecology to advance prediction in plant ecology. Armed with a deeper understanding of the dimensionality of life history and functional traits, we are now equipped to quantitively link phenotypes to population growth rates across gradients of resource availability and disturbance regimes. Predicting how species respond to global change is perhaps the most important challenge of our time. A robust framework for plant strategy theory will advance this research agenda by testing the generality of traits for predicting population dynamics.
Biophysical Ecology
Author: D. M. GatesPublisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461260248
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 631
Book Description
The objective of this book is to make analytical methods available to students of ecology. The text deals with concepts of energy exchange, gas exchange, and chemical kinetics involving the interactions of plants and animals with their environments. The first four chapters are designed to show the applications of biophysical ecology in a preliminary, sim plified manner. Chapters 5-10, treating the topics of radiation, convec tion, conduction, and evaporation, are concerned with the physical environment. The spectral properties of radiation and matter are thoroughly described, as well as the geometrical, instantaneous, daily, and annual amounts of both shortwave and longwave radiation. Later chapters give the more elaborate analytical methods necessary for the study of photosynthesis in plants and energy budgets in animals. The final chapter describes the temperature responses of plants and animals. The discipline of biophysical ecology is rapidly growing, and some important topics and references are not included due to limitations of space, cost, and time. The methodology of some aspects of ecology is illustrated by the subject matter of this book. It is hoped that future students of the subject will carry it far beyond its present status. Ideas for advancing the subject matter of biophysical ecology exceed individual capacities for effort, and even today, many investigators in ecology are studying subjects for which they are inadequately prepared. The potential of modern science, in the minds and hands of skilled investigators, to of the interactions of organisms with their advance our understanding environment is enormous.