C₄ photosynthesis evolved when grasses migrated out of contracting forests under a declining atmospheric CO₂ concentration ([CO₂]_a) and drying climate around 30 million years ago. C₄ grasses are hypothesised to benefit from improved plant-water relations in open habitats such as savannas, giving...

In this study, we determined the competition effects of herbaceous vegetation on survival, growth, and plant water relations of planted lenga (Nothofagus pumilio) seedlings under field and nursery conditions in western Patagonia, Argentina. In the field, thirty (1.5×1.5 m) plots were randomly set...

Premise: Belowground functional traits play a significant role in determining plant water-use strategies and plant performance, but we lack data on root traits across communities, particularly in the tropical savanna biome, where vegetation dynamics are hypothesized to be strongly driven by...

Criconemoides neoinformis n. sp., a cryptic species of C. informis group, and C. persicus n. sp. were recovered from the rhizosphere of pear and grass, in Zanjan and West Azerbaijan provinces, northwestern Iran, respectively. Criconemoides neoinformis n. sp. is characterised by 522-585 μm long...

Drought stress is a major contributing factor to plant mortality across the globe. Drought effects are often studied at the local scale, but recent advances in remote sensing allow for observations of plant water status across broad geographic scales. The vegetation optical depth (VOD) derived from ...

The hydraulic system of vascular plants and its integrity is essential for plant survival. To transport water under tension, the walls of xylem conduits must approximate rigid pipes. Against this expectation, conduit deformation has been reported in the leaves of a few species and hypothesized to...

Background: Tropical high mountains present extreme daily temperature variations, frequent high air evaporative demands and seasonal differences in soil water availability. Plants have adapted to these conditions through different avoidance-tolerance mechanisms. This review focuses on plant-growth...

There is a balanced plant-water relationship in the original vegetation in the desert area. With the increase in the population and social development of the desert area, people need the goods and services of the forest vegetation ecosystem. To meet the growing demand for plant community goods and...

Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa Torr.) may maintain apical dominance after a treatment that causes partial top-kill (PTK) and leaves canopies with "stem flagging." In contrast, top-killing treatments stimulate multistemmed regrowth (i.e., basal sprouting; BSP). Because this difference may...

Rapid evolutionary radiations are among the most challenging phylogenetic problems, wherein different types of data (e.g., morphology and molecular) or genetic markers (e.g., nuclear and organelle) often yield inconsistent results. The tribe Arundinarieae, that is, the temperate bamboos, is a clade ...