Background and Aims: By the year 2100, atmospheric CO₂ concentration ([CO₂]_a) could reach 800 ppm, having risen from ∼200 ppm since the Neogene, beginning ∼24 Myr ago. Changing [CO₂]_a affects plant carbon-water balance, with implications for growth, drought tolerance and vegetation shifts. The...

Establishing vegetation on disturbed sites in arid environments is difficult due to decreased water availability caused by altered soil properties: depth, compaction, and hydraulic characteristics. Plants cope with moisture stress through a combination of traits, including physiological strategies...

This review is focused on woody legumes from the southern continents. We highlight that the evolution of the Caesalpinioideae and Mimosoideae with old soils, with variable supplies of water and also with fire has produced a suite of advantageous physiological characteristics. These include good...

In water-limited environments, transpiration may minimize deep drainage on engineered covers used for hazardous waste disposal. However, comparative studies investigating plant ecophysiology and water use on engineered covers and natural sites are limited. Water use patterns and plant-water...

In Acacia, 90% of species have drought-tolerant phyllodes as their adult foliage, the remaining species have bipinnate leaves. We conducted tests for relationships between foliage type and 35 bioclimatic variables at the continental scale and found significant correlations of both 'moisture...

Water stress is the most important factor limiting early survival and growth of seedlings in arid and semi-arid zones. Many woody species develop adaptive mechanisms in response to water stress. This study assesses survival rate, growth and dry matter distribution in response to water stress in...

As the ratio of carbon uptake to water use by vegetation, water-use efficiency (WUE) is a key ecosystem property linking global carbon and water cycles. It can be estimated in several ways, but it is currently unclear how different measures of WUE relate, and how well they each capture variation in ...

Competition for soil water is one of the major processes that drive the assembly of plant communities, particularly in regions subjected to long dry seasons. The relationship between plant density and soil water competition has strong, but poorly understood, practical implications for population...

This study was carried out on pomegranate fruits cv. "Wonderful" with the aim of maintaining fruit quality and water content, reducing weight loss, chilling injury and browning symptoms during cold storage at 5°C and 90% RH for 60 d followed by simulated shelf life at 20°C for 14 d. Coating...