We studied the effects of elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide ([CO2]) and ozone ([O3]) on growth, biomass allocation and leaf area of field-grown O3-tolerant (Clone 4) and O3-sensitive clones (Clone 80) of European silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) trees during 1999-2001. Seven-year-old trees of Clones 4 and 80 growing outside in open-top chambers were exposed for 3 years to the followin...

This study investigates the applicability of empirical and radiative transfer models to estimate water content at leaf and landscape level. Themain goal is to evaluate and compare the accuracy of these two approaches for estimating leaf water content by means of laboratory reflectance/transmittance measurements and for mapping leaf and canopy water content by using airborne Multispectral Infrar...

A study on response of 29 barley genotypes resistant to Bipolaris leaf blight (Bipolaris sorokiniana) was conducted to investigate the relationship of the components of resistance of 29 barley genotypes. Data on five components of resistance viz., infection frequency (number of lesions per plant), lesion size (mm), percent leaf area affected by lesion, percent necrotic area on leaf, and disease...

Local adaptation along steep environmental gradients likely contributes to plant diversity in the Cape Region of South Africa, yet existing analyses of trait divergence are limited to static measurements of functional traits rather than trajectories of individual development. We explore whether five taxa of evergreen shrubs (Protea section Exsertae) differ in their developmental trajectories an...

We investigated the hydraulic properties in relation to soil moisture, leaf habit, and phylogenetic lineage of 17 species of oaks ( Quercus ) that occur sympatrically in northern central Florida (USA). Leaf area per shoot increased and Huber values (ratio of sapwood area to leaf area) decreased with increasing soil moisture of species’ habitats. As a result, maximum hydraulic conductance and ma...

Young individuals of a single black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa Torr. & Gray) clone were raised for three growing seasons in whole-tree chambers and exposed to either ambient or elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO2]), with either a high or a low mineral nutrient supply, in a factorial experimental design. Nutrient availability had a larger effect on growth and dry matter ...

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...

Plant functional traits capture important variation in plant strategy and function. Recent literature has revealed that within-species variation in traits is greater than previously supposed. However, we still have a poor understanding of how intraspecific variation is coordinated among different traits, and how it is driven by environment. We quantified intraspecific variation in wood density ...

Fuel moisture content (FMC) is used in forest fire danger models to characterise the moisture status of the foliage. FMC expresses the amount of water in a leaf relative to the amount of dry matter and differs from measures of leaf water content which express the amount of water in a leaf relative to its area. FMC is related to both leaf water content and leaf dry matter content, and the relati...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Hydrophytes generally exhibit highly acquisitive leaf economics. However, a range of growth forms is evident, from small, free-floating and rapidly growing Lemniden to large, broad-leaved Nymphaeiden, denoting variability in adaptive strategies. Traits used to classify adaptive strategies in terrestrial species, such as canopy height, are not applicable to hydrophytes. We hy...