1. Abiotic disturbance plays an important role in determining assemblage structure and maintaining species richness in many ecosystems. Disturbances events are complex, often affecting multiple environmental parameters simultaneously and causing selective removal of biomass. For this reason, observational studies often fail to elucidate the primary mechanism by which disturbance modifies assemb...

Spring wheat cv. Minaret was grown under three carbon dioxide (C02) and two ozone (O3) concentrations from seedling emergence to maturity in open-top chambers. Under elevated CO2 concentrations, the green leaf area index of the main shoot was increased, largely due to an increase in green leaf area duration. Biomass increased linearly in response to increasing CO2 (ambient, 550 and 680 ppm). At...

The forest-savanna ecotone may be very sharp in fire-prone areas. Fire and competition for light play key roles in its maintenance, as forest and savanna tree seedlings are quickly excluded from the other ecosystem. We hypothesized a tradeoff between seedling traits linked to fire resistance and to competition for light to explain these exclusions. We compared growth- and survival-related trait...

The search for diverse plant growth-promoting (PGP) diazotrophic bacteria is gaining momentum as efforts are made to exploit them as biofertilizers for various economically important crops. In the present study, 17 diazotrophic strains belonging to eight different genera isolated from rice paddy fields were screened for multiple PGP traits and evaluated for their inoculation effects on canola a...

were exposed to two concentrations of atmospheric CO2 (365 or 720 μmol mol) in combination with two N treatments (40 or 400 kg N ha year) and two irrigation treatments (target values of −0.5 or −1.5 MPa xylem pressure potential) in opentop chambers from March 1993 through November 1994. Irrigation treatments were imposed after seedling establishment (i.e., 19 weeks after planting). Seedlings we...

The neotropical liana Gnetum leyboldii (Gnetaceae) is a gymnosperm that resembles angiosperms in wood anatomy, overall morphology, and seed dispersal mechanism. Like other woody lianas, seedlings germinate in the shaded forest understory and start climbing towards the canopy, being exposed to sites with extreme differences in light conditions. However, the extent of physiological and structural...

Light availability is a crucial resource determining seedling survival, establishment, and growth. Competition for light asymmetric, giving the taller individuals competitive advantage obtaining resources. Species-specific traits, e.g., shade tolerance, rooting depth, leaf morphology, determine their strategical growth response under limited different interactions. We established controlled pot...

The advantages of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. for genetic studies are well known, but its diminutive stature and associated low biomass at maturity make it a challenging species for complementary physiological and biochemical studies. Hydroponic culture can significantly increase plant growth and produce uniform, stress-free root and shoot material that can be harvested throughout the life...

The resurrection plant Reaumuria soongorica is widespread across Asia, southern Europe, and North Africa and is considered to be a constructive keystone species in desert ecosystems, but the impacts of climate change on this species in desert ecosystems are unclear. Here, the morphological responses of R. soongorica to changes in rainfall quantity (30% reduction and 30% increase in rainfall qua...

Plants adapt to environment by plastic growth which will be transferred to offspring through transgenerational effect. Performance and response of maternal and offspring plant will affect population dynamics and community composition. However, it is scarcely understood how maternal nutrient environment affect the performance and response of offspring through transgenerational effect. Here we st...