1. Populations of Metrosideros polymorpha establish across a broad range of precipitation in Hawai‘i – from <400 to >10000 mm per year. To determine whether adjustment of hydraulic and photosynthetic traits could contribute to this success in both high and low rainfall, we sampled populations on the wet and the dry sides of Hawai‘i Island, replicated on two different-aged lava flows at similar ...

to date, the effects of nanoparticles on woody plants remain unaddressed. this study reveals some of the physiological and biochemical effects of sio2 nanoparticles on wild pear seedlings. the seedlings were irrigated with different concentrations of nano silica (0, 10, 100, 500 and 1000 mg/l) for 14 days. nanoparticle adsorption and absorption, biomass allocation, gas exchange, relative water ...

Hawaiian endemic tree Acacia koa is a model for heteroblasty with bipinnately compound leaves and phyllodes. Previous studies suggested three hypotheses for their functional differentiation: an advantage of leaves for early growth or shade tolerance, and an advantage of phyllodes for drought tolerance. We tested the ability of these hypotheses to explain differences between leaf types for potte...

For natural selection to take place several conditions must be met, including consistent variation among individuals. Although this assumption is increasingly being explored in vertebrates, it has rarely been investigated for insect physiological traits, although variation in these traits is usually assumed to be adaptive. We investigated repeatability (r) of metabolic rate and gas exchange cha...

paclobutrazol was utilized to analyze its role in water stress amelioration and post drought recovery of container-grown pear ( pyrus communis cv. biroti ) saplings. following planting, paclobutrazol was applied as soil drench at concentration of 0, 0.15 and 0.3 mg per pot. three months following planting, saplings were subjected to three water stress treatments of: 0, -0.4 and -0.8 mpa. contro...

salinity affects plant growth by the osmotic stress of salt around the roots as well as by toxicity caused by excessive accumulation of salt in leaves. the study of photosynthetic traits as a rapid and non-destructive tool demonstrates the great potential for improving plant productivity and stress tolerance. a pot experiment was carried out to investigate short-term effects of osmotic stress (...