The differential pigment composition and photosynthetic activity of sun and shade leaves of deciduous (Acer pseudoplatanus, Fagus sylvatica, Tilia cordata) and coniferous (Abies alba) trees was comparatively determined by studying the photosynthetic rates via CO(2) measurements and also by imaging the Chl fluorescence decrease ratio (R(Fd)), which is an in vivo indicator of the net CO(2) assimi...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Success of invasive plant species is thought to be linked with their higher leaf carbon fixation strategy, enabling them to capture and utilize resources better than native species, and thus pre-empt and maintain space. However, these traits are not well-defined for invasive woody vines. METHODS In a glass house setting, experiments were conducted to examine how leaf carbo...

Koch et al. (Nature 428: 851-854) measured various parameters that were thought to limit the height of Sequoia sempervirens from northern California and concluded that the maximum height for this species is 122-130 m because within this range: (1) Irreversible embolism formation was proposed to occur when the xylem pressure was less than -1.9 MPa. (2) The leaf mass to area ratio exponentially a...

Trait predictions from leaf spectral properties are mainly applied to tree species, while herbaceous systems received little attention in this topic. Whether similar trait-spectrum relations can be derived for herbaceous plants that differ strongly in growing strategy and environmental constraints is therefore unknown. We used partial least squares regression to relate key traits to leaf spectr...

tomato plays an important role in providing vitamins and minerals in human nutrition, it has a great potential in exports. as well as it is an important vegetable due to its variety of vitamins, carotene, useful acids, sugar and minerals play an important role in human health. regarding the fact that tomato is one of the most significant products and its consumption is rising up day after day, ...