Mediterranean rivers in intensive agricultural watersheds usually display outgrowths of macrophytes - notably alien species - due to a combination of high concentrations of nutrients in the water runoff and low flows resulting from water abstraction for irrigation. Standard mechanical and chemical control is used to mitigate the problems associated with excessive growth of plant biomass: mainly...

Stressful environments may enhance the occurrence of facilitative interspecific interactions between plants. In several regions, Zostera marina occurs in mixed assemblages. However, the potential effects of plant diversity on stress responses and stability properties of Z. marina are poorly understood. We investigated the resistance and recovery of Z. marina subjected to shading (1 mo) in a fie...

Potamogeton nodosus tubers produce floating-type instead of submersed-type leaves when exposed to 10(-5) molar synthetic abscisic acid. Abscisic acid-induced leaves have stomata on upper leaf surfaces and higher width/length ratios than controls. These effects are wholly or partially overcome by simultaneous exposure to abscisic acid combined with gibberellic acid, kinetin, or benzyladenine.

Many plant species exhibit different leaf morphologies within a single plant, or heterophylly. The molecular mechanisms regulating this phenomenon, however, have remained elusive. In this study, the transcriptomes of submerged and floating leaves of an aquatic heterophyllous plant, Potamogeton octandrus Poir, at different stages of development, were sequenced using high-throughput sequencing (R...