Author: Yong-Jian Wang
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 283255394X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
The Anthropocene, with the ongoing global changes in climate, land use, acidity, and content of toxins, represents the greatest recent challenges for plants. Clonal plants mainly reproduce vegetatively/asexually, and offspring remain attached to the parent at least until establishment. Despite limited gene recombination and genetic diversity, clonal plants are widely distributed and play significant roles in various ecosystems worldwide. Clonal traits, such as resource sharing and signaling between connected ramets, selective positioning of ramets, reallocation of stored energy/nutrients between connected ramets, initiation of meristem banks in response to clonal integration, and trade-offs between clonal and sexual reproduction, might help clonal plants adapt to different environmental conditions. The expression, fitness effects, and evolution of clonal traits can be influenced by environmental changes, which can be efficiently inherited and affects offspring performance, i.e., clonal parental effect. These adaptations may contribute to the survival, competition, invasiveness, and spread of clonal species in response to global climate change in the Anthropocene, from individuals to ecosystems. Understanding the capacity of clonal species to survive and adjust to changing environments is requisite but limited. Specifically, the unique traits of clonal plants have been underestimated, and their contribution to population, community, and ecosystem dynamics is unclear. The roles of clonality in ecosystem functioning (e.g., carbon storage, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling, water and soil conservation, and water purification) need to be further explored. The contribution of clonal growth in plant invasiveness and community invisibility also needs to be addressed. Hence, there is an urgent need for more in-depth studies investigating the adaptation and evolution, mechanisms, functioning, and approaches of plant clonality to global change and invasiveness at different levels.
Author: Judy Simon
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889452050
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 156
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Book Description
Competitiveness describes a key ability important for plants to grow and survive abiotic and biotic stresses. Under optimal, but particularly under non-optimal conditions, plants compete for resources including nutrients, light, water, space, pollinators and other. Competition occurs above- and belowground. In resource-poor habitats, competition is generally considered to be more pronounced than in resource-rich habitats. Although competition occurs between different players within an ecosystem such as between plants and soil microorganisms, our topic focusses on plant-plant interactions and includes inter-specific competition between different species of similar and different life forms and intra-specific competition. Strategies for securing resources via spatial or temporal separation and different resource needs generally reduce competition. Increasingly important is the effect of invasive plants and subsequent decline in biodiversity and ecosystem function. Current knowledge and future climate predictions suggest that in some situations competition will be intensified with occurrence of increased abiotic (e.g. water and nutrient limitations) and biotic stresses (e.g. mass outbreak of insects), but competition might also decrease in situations where plant productivity and survival declines (e.g. habitats with degraded soils). Changing interactions, climate change and biological invasions place new challenges on ecosystems. Understanding processes and mechanisms that underlie the interactions between plants and environmental factors will aid predictions and intervention. There is much need to develop strategies to secure ecosystem services via primary productivity and to prevent the continued loss of biodiversity. This Research Topic provides an up-to-date account of knowledge on plant-plant interactions with a focus on identifying the mechanisms underpinning competitive ability. The Research Topic aims to showcase knowledge that links ecological relevance with physiological processes to better understanding plant and ecosystem function.
Author: Theodore Garland
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520261801
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 752
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Book Description
This volume summarizes studies in experimental evolution, outlining current techniques and applications, and presenting the field's range of research.
Author: William J. Bond
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198812450
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 191
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Book Description
Explores the geography, ecology, and antiquity of 'open ecosystems' which include grasslands, savannas, and shrublands.
Author: Rossano Bolpagni
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889660834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 116
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Book Description
This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030948538X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259
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Book Description
Coral reef declines have been recorded for all major tropical ocean basins since the 1980s, averaging approximately 30-50% reductions in reef cover globally. These losses are a result of numerous problems, including habitat destruction, pollution, overfishing, disease, and climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions and the associated increases in ocean temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have been implicated in increased reports of coral bleaching, disease outbreaks, and ocean acidification (OA). For the hundreds of millions of people who depend on reefs for food or livelihoods, the thousands of communities that depend on reefs for wave protection, the people whose cultural practices are tied to reef resources, and the many economies that depend on reefs for fisheries or tourism, the health and maintenance of this major global ecosystem is crucial. A growing body of research on coral physiology, ecology, molecular biology, and responses to stress has revealed potential tools to increase coral resilience. Some of this knowledge is poised to provide practical interventions in the short-term, whereas other discoveries are poised to facilitate research that may later open the doors to additional interventions. A Research Review of Interventions to Increase the Persistence and Resilience of Coral Reefs reviews the state of science on genetic, ecological, and environmental interventions meant to enhance the persistence and resilience of coral reefs. The complex nature of corals and their associated microbiome lends itself to a wide range of possible approaches. This first report provides a summary of currently available information on the range of interventions present in the scientific literature and provides a basis for the forthcoming final report.
Author: Montserrat Arista
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889715930
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402
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Book Description
Author: Kurt Jax
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521879531
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 287
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Book Description
A new and integrative analysis of the concept of ecosystem functioning, providing guidance for its application in conservation practice.
Author: Yongshuo Fu
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889665364
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 157
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Book Description
Author: Zi-Min Hu
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9401775346
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 398
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Book Description
The book provides an overview of research on the remarkable diversity, adaptive genetic differentiation, and evolutionary complexity of intertidal macroalgae species. Through incorporating molecular data, ecological niche and model-based phylogeographic inference, this book presents the latest findings and hypotheses on the spatial distribution and evolution of seaweeds in the context of historical climate change (e.g. the Quaternary ice ages), contemporary global warming, and increased anthropogenic influences. The chapters in this book highlight past and current research on seaweed phylogeography and predict the future trends and directions. This book frames a number of research cases to review how biogeographic processes and interactive eco-genetic dynamics shaped the demographic histories of seaweeds, which furthermore enhances our understanding of speciation and diversification in the sea. Dr. Zi-Min Hu is an associate professor at Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China. Dr. Ceridwen Fraser is a senior lecturer at Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
