Present-day correlations between leaf physiognomic traits (shape and size) and climate are widely used to estimate paleoclimate using fossil floras. For example, leaf-margin analysis estimates paleotemperature using the modern relation of mean annual temperature (MAT) and the site-proportion of untoothed-leaf species (NT). This uniformitarian approach should provide accurate paleoclimate recons...

Tropical hyperseasonal savannas provide a rare example of a tropical climax community dominated by graminoid species. Species living in such savannas are frequently exposed to excess heat and light, in addition to drought and waterlogging, and must possess traits to avoid or tolerate these stress factors. Here we examine the contrasting heat and light stress adaptations of two dominant savanna ...

to evaluate the freezing tolerance in sugar beet (beta vulgaris l.), seven cultivars (suprema, jolge, monotunno, giada, pp8, sbsi1, palma) were exposed to the 10 temperatures (0, -2, -4, -6, -8, -10, -12, -14, -16 and -18˚c) .the study carried out as a factorial arrangement of treatments based on randomized completely design with three replications at college of agriculture, ferdowsi university...

Rising temperature and tropospheric ozone (O(3)) concentrations are likely to affect carbon assimilation processes and thus the carbon sink strength of trees. In this study, we investigated the joint action of elevated ozone and temperature on silver birch (Betula pendula) and European aspen (Populus tremula) saplings in field conditions by combining free-air ozone exposure (1.2 × ambient) and ...

Response functions used in crop simulation models are usually different for different physiological processes and cultivars, resulting in many unknown coefficients in the response functions. This is the case of African violet (Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl.), where a generalized temperature response for leaf growth and development has not been developed yet. The objective of this study was to deve...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Leaf hydraulic properties are strongly linked with transpiration and photosynthesis in many species. However, it is not known if gas exchange and hydraulics will have co-ordinated responses to climate change. The objective of this study was to investigate the responses of leaf hydraulic conductance (Kleaf) in Glycine max (soybean) to growth at elevated [CO2] and increased te...

We evaluated the effects of cadmium and temperature on plant-litter decomposition by examining diversity and activity of aquatic fungi and leaf consumption by Limnephilus sp., a typical invertebrate shredder of Iberian streams. Freshly fallen leaves were immersed in a stream to allow microbial colonization, and were exposed in microcosms to a gradient of cadmium (≤11 levels, ≤35 mg L(-1)). Micr...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In maize (Zea mays), early flowering date, which is a valuable trait for several cropping systems, is associated with the number of leaves per plant and the leaf appearance rate. Final leaf number depends upon the rate and duration of leaf initiation. The aims of this study were to analyse the genotypic variation in the response to temperature of leaf appearance rate and lea...

Transient lulls in air movement are rarely measured, but can cause leaf temperature to rise rapidly to critical levels. The high heat capacity of thick leaves can damp this rapid change in temperature. However, little is known about the extent to which increased leaf thickness can reduce thermal damage, or how thick leaves would need to be to have biological significance. We evaluated quantitat...

The degree of leaf dissection and the presence of leaf teeth, along with tooth size and abundance, inversely correlate with mean annual temperature (MAT) across many plant communities. These relationships form the core of several methods for reconstructing MAT from fossils, yet the direct selection of temperature on tooth morphology has not been demonstrated experimentally. It is also not known...