Cause-and-effect interpretations of the apparent impacts of biological invasions are confounded by the coincident occurrence of non-native species and changes to abiotic factors. Native community structure and function can vary greatly in space and time, owing to abiotic variables that could potentially be affected by non-native species. Here, we sought to determine the relative importance of a...

Evolution may be dominated by biotic factors, as in the Red Queen model, or abiotic factors, as in the Court Jester model, or a mixture of both. The two models appear to operate predominantly over different geographic and temporal scales: Competition, predation, and other biotic factors shape ecosystems locally and over short time spans, but extrinsic factors such as climate and oceanographic a...

Root herbivores are important ecosystem drivers and agricultural pests, and, possibly as a consequence, plants protect their roots using a variety of defensive strategies. One aspect that distinguishes belowground from aboveground plant-insect interactions is that roots are constantly exposed to a set of soil-specific abiotic factors. These factors can profoundly influence root resistance, and,...

Elucidating the key players of molecular mechanism that mediate the complex stress-responses in plants system is an important step to develop improved variety of stress tolerant crops. Understanding the effects of different types of biotic and abiotic stress is a rapidly emerging domain in the area of plant research to develop better, stress tolerant plants. Information about the transcription ...

Abiotic stresses cause serious damage to plants; therefore, plants undergo a complicated stress response through signal transduction originating from environmental stimuli. Here we show that a subset of short-chain leaf volatiles with an α, β-unsaturated carbonyl bond in their structure (reactive short-chain leaf volatiles, RSLVs) like (E)-2-hexenal and (E)-2-butenal can act as signal chemicals...

the spherical mealybug (nipaecoccus viridis newsted) is one of the most harmful pest of citrus, oleander and mulberry in green space of shiraz region. this study was carried out to detect the population dynamics of this pest and the role of biotic and abiotic factors on it in 2007-2008. the spherical mealybug, in both years, started its activity from early may on citrus and oleander trees, but ...

Low temperature, drought and salinity are major adverse environmental factors that limit plant productivity. Understanding the mechanisms by which plants perceive and transduce these stress signals to initiate adaptive responses is essential for engineering stress-tolerant crop plants. Molecular and biochemical studies suggest that abiotic stress signaling in plants involves receptor-coupled ph...

We assessed if the relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors for plant community composition differs along environmental gradients and between functional groups, and asked which implications this may have in a warmer and wetter future. The study location is a unique grid of sites spanning regional-scale temperature and precipitation gradients in boreal and alpine grasslands in southern ...

As sessile organisms, plants require mechanisms to sense and respond to changes in their environment, including both biotic and abiotic factors. One of the most common plant adaptations to environmental changes is differential regulation of growth, which results in growth either away from adverse conditions or towards more favorable conditions. As cell walls shape plant growth, this differentia...