Search results for "010606 plant biology & botany"
showing 10 items of 1457 documents
Water recycling in leaves of Lithops (Aizoaceae)
2016
Lithops plants consist of a pair of succulent leaves inserted on a short stem; each growing season young leaves develop in a cavity formed between the older pair. Young leaves can take up water from the older pair allowing the plant to maintain growth and leaf expansion even without external supply of water. Recycling water between vegetative organs is one of the possible adaptation strategies of plants under drought stress, but it had never been demonstrated experimentally in Lithops. The methodology used to verify the existence of water redistribution from old leaves to young leaves was fluorescence microscopy, using two dyes to follow the water pathway inside the plant: Sulforhodamine G …
Drought Stress Memory at the Plant Cycle Level: A Review
2021
International audience; Plants are sessile organisms whose survival depends on their strategy to cope with dynamic, stressful conditions. It is urgent to improve the ability of crops to adapt to recurrent stresses in order to alleviate the negative impacts on their productivity. Although our knowledge of plant adaptation to drought has been extensively enhanced during the last decades, recent studies have tackled plant responses to recurrent stresses. The present review synthesizes the major findings from studies addressing plant responses to multiple drought events, and demonstrates the ability of plants to memorize drought stress. Stress memory is described as a priming effect allowing a …
Identification of new hardy ferns that preferentially accumulate light rare earth elements: a conserved trait within fern species
2020
Environmental contextRare earth elements (REEs) are strategic metals and emerging contaminants for which plant-based remediation measures are needed. We screened a collection of hardy ferns and identified new accumulator species that preferentially transferred light REEs to their fronds. This study is an important step towards understanding the mechanisms of REE accumulation in plants. AbstractRare earth elements (REEs) include the lanthanides plus yttrium and scandium, and can be split according to their atomic mass into light (LREEs) and heavy REEs (HREEs). The increasing demand for REEs is mainly driven by new technologies, and their current low recyclability has led them to become emer…
Dual-purpose wheat technology: a tool for ensuring food security and livestock sustainability in cereal-based cropping pattern
2020
Wheat cultivation under a dual-purpose (DP) system holds great potential to provide additional fodder for livestock with marginal grain reduction. This study explores the potential of wheat as a DP...
Phytotoxic Effects of Commercial Eucalyptus citriodora, Lavandula angustifolia, and Pinus sylvestris Essential Oils on Weeds, Crops, and Invasive Spe…
2019
Background: essential oils are well known for their pharmacological effectiveness as well as their repellent, insecticide, and herbicide activities. The emergence of resistant weeds, due to the overuse of synthetic herbicides, makes it necessary to find natural alternatives for weed control. The aim of this study was to evaluate the phytotoxic effects of Eucalyptus citriodora, Lavandula angustifolia, and Pinus sylvestris, three common commercial essential oils, on weeds (Portulaca oleracea, Lolium multiflorum, and Echinochloa crus-galli), food crops (tomato and cucumber), and the invasive species Nicotiana glauca. Methods: to determine herbicidal effects, essential oils were tested at diffe…
Evolutionary ecology of fast seed germination—A case study in Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae
2017
Abstract Germination is a vulnerable and risky step in a plant’s life cycle. Particularly under harsh environmental conditions, where time windows favourable for seedling establishment and survival are short or unpredictable, germination speed might play a highly adaptive role. We investigated the germination speed of 107 Amaranthaceae s.l. at two different temperatures and related the results to various plant and habitat traits taking into account the molecular phylogenetic relatedness of the species sampled. Germination speed is a fast evolving trait in Amaranthaceae s.l. It evolves towards significantly faster optima in C4 and halophyte lineages, albeit for different reasons. While C4 ph…
A fungal perspective on conservation biology
2014
Hitherto fungi have rarely been considered in conservation biology, but this is changing as the field moves from addressing single species issues to an integrative ecosystem-based approach. The current emphasis on biodiversity as a provider of ecosystem services throws the spotlight on the vast diversity of fungi, their crucial roles in terrestrial ecosystems, and the benefits of considering fungi in concert with animals and plants. We reviewed the role of fungi in ecosystems and composed an overview of the current state of conservation of fungi. There are 5 areas in which fungi can be readily integrated into conservation: as providers of habitats and processes important for other organisms…
Corrigendum to “Soil fungal community composition does not alter along a latitudinal gradient through the maritime and sub-Antarctic” Fungal Ecology …
2012
A novel method to predict dark diversity using unconstrained ordination analysis
2019
[Questions] Species pools are the product of complex ecological and evolutionary mechanisms, operating over a range of spatial scales. Here, we focus on species absent from local sites but with the potential to establish within communities — known as dark diversity. Methods for estimating dark diversity are still being developed and need to be compared, as well as tested for the type, and amount, of reference data needed to calibrate these methods. [Location] South Bohemia (48°58′ N, 14°28′ E) and Železné Hory (49°52′ N, 15°34′ E), Czech Republic. [Method] We compared a widely accepted algorithm to estimate species pools (Beals smoothing index, based on species co-occurrence) against a nove…
Spring weed communities of rice agrocoenoses in central Nepal
2016
AbstractRice field weed communities occurring in central Nepal are presented in this study. The research was focussed on the classification of segetal plant communities occurring in paddy fields, which had been poorly investigated from a geobotanical standpoint. In all, 108 phytosociological relevés were sampled, using the Braun-Blanquet method. The analyses classified the vegetation into 9 communities, including 7 associations and one subassociation. Four new plant associations and one new subassociation were proposed: Elatinetum triandro-ambiguae, Mazo pumili-Lindernietum ciliatae, Mazo pumili-Lindernietum ciliatae caesulietosum axillaris, Rotaletum rotundifoliae and Ammanietum pygmeae. D…