Because the quantity, quality, and heterogeneity of resources should affect the diversity of consumers, plant productivity, plant composition, and plant diversity may influence the diversity of trophic levels higher up the food chain (‘‘bottom-up’’ control of diversity). Increasing plant productivity may increase herbivore diversity by: increasing the abundance of rare resources (‘‘resource rar...

Soil respiration is responsible for recycling considerable quantities of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the richness of plants in a community can have significant impacts on ecosystem functioning, but the specific influences of plant species richness (SR), plant functional-type richness and plant community composition...

The apoplast is a distinct extracellular compartment in plant tissues that lies outside the plasma membrane and includes the cell wall. The apoplastic compartment of plant leaves is the site of several important biological processes, including cell wall formation, cellular nutrient and water uptake and export, plant-endophyte interactions and defence responses to pathogens. The infiltration-cen...

The purpose of the investigations here described was to determine to what extent the chemical composition of a plant can be altered by growing it under different environmental conditions. The three general processes which de'termine the organic composition of a plant are photosynthesis, respiration, including aerobic and anaerobic catabolism, and biosynthesis. In the present state of knowledge'...

The composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities in roots of rare Viola elatior and common V. mirabilis was investigated using PCR with primers specific for Glomus group A, followed by single-stranded conformation polymorphism analysis. Twelve AM fungal sequence types were identified, ten of them from both plant species. On average 3.8/7.5 sequence types were detected per 1 cm-...

Agglomerative clustering, Two Way Indicator Species Analysis (WINSPAN), and Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) were used for the plant community analysis. Remotely sensed data was used as a surrogate in identifying and locating field sites from where floristic composition, environmental and spatial data were collected. Characteristic plant species of each community type are presented toget...

Recent research on the organo-chemical composition of Sphagnum and on the fate of its litter has further clarified how this plant builds acidic, nutrient-poor, cold and anoxic peat bogs. The bog environment helps Sphagnum to outcompete other plants for light. Its morphology, anatomy, physiology and composition make it an effective ecosystem engineer and at the same time benefit the plant in the...

Medicinal plants are the local heritage with global importance. They have curative properties due to presence of various complex chemical substances of different composition, which are found as secondary plant metabolites in one or more parts of these plants. These plant metabolites according to their composition are grouped as flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, saponins etc...Guiera senegalensis ...