Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Alyssa M. Willson, Anna T. Trugman, Jennifer S. Powers, Chris M. Smith-Martin, David Medvigy
Summary: Lianas, a key component of tropical forests, are more sensitive to drying atmospheric conditions and more susceptible to reaching a hydraulic threshold for viability compared to trees under future climate change.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Lara R. Prelle, Martin Albrecht, Ulf Karsten, Pauline Damer, Tabea Giese, Jessica Jahns, Simon Muller, Louisa Schulz, Lennard Viertel, Karin Glaser
Summary: The study found that the German Baltic Sea coastline is characterized by sea-land transition zones with highly fluctuating environmental parameters, affecting the physiological processes of inhabiting organisms. Benthic diatom strains exhibited wide adaptability in terms of light, temperature, and salinity, with no growth rate differences between peatland and Baltic Sea strains. The photosynthetic temperature optimum of peatland diatom isolates was higher compared to Baltic Sea isolates.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Santanu Das, Biplab Mitra, Satish Kumar Luthra, Asok Saha, Mohamed M. Hassan, Akbar Hossain
Summary: The study evaluated 21 potato cultivars in the eastern sub-Himalayan plains, finding significant differences in growth characteristics and physiological responses among different varieties, with 'Kufri Arun' showing the best performance.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Tyler C. Coverdale, Ryan D. O'Connell, Matthew C. Hutchinson, Amanda Savagian, Tyler R. Kartzinel, Todd M. Palmer, Jacob R. Goheen, David J. Augustine, Mahesh Sankaran, Corina E. Tarnita, Robert M. Pringle
Summary: The presence of wild large herbivores in East African savannas helps to suppress the growth of lianas, while the absence of these herbivores results in a significant increase in liana abundance, negatively impacting tree growth. The recolonization of herbivores after the removal of exclusion fences highlights the importance of herbivores in controlling plant community dynamics in savanna ecosystems.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Vicente Vives-Peris, Maria F. Lopez-Climent, Maria Moliner-Sabater, Aurelio Gomez-Cadenas, Rosa M. Perez-Clemente
Summary: Citrus productivity in the Mediterranean basin has been declining due to climate change and high salinity levels in the aquifers. The rootstock has been found to play a crucial role in stress tolerance, but the scion also has an important impact. The study demonstrates that a versatile photosynthetic system, appropriate stomatal density, and modulation of genes encoding Cl- transporters are important for citrus tolerance to high salinity.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Hayati Akman, Cankui Zhang, Gebisa Ejeta
Summary: Understanding the physiological mechanisms behind drought tolerance in crop plants is crucial for effective breeding. This study characterized drought stress responses in four sorghum cultivars with different levels of drought tolerance, showing that tolerant cultivars exhibited higher photosynthetic rates, transpiration rates, and stomatal conductance, while post-anthesis tolerant cultivars had higher starch content and osmotic potential under water stress.
PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Felicien Meunier, Marco D. Visser, Alexey Shiklomanov, Michael C. Dietze, J. Antonio Q. Guzman, G. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, Hannes P. T. De Deurwaerder, Sruthi M. Krishna Moorthy, Stefan A. Schnitzer, David C. Marvin, Marcos Longo, Chang Liu, Eben N. Broadbent, Angelica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Matteo Detto, Hans Verbeeck
Summary: This study used a meta-analysis approach to gather liana leaf optical spectra and canopy spectra data to investigate the impact of liana traits on the energy balance, light competition, and carbon cycle of tropical forests. The results showed that lianas have specific traits that make them more efficient at light interception, leading to modifications in forest energy balance and reductions in tree and ecosystem productivity while increasing liana productivity. This study provides new evidence on the impact of lianas on forest functioning and suggests implications for large-scale forest biogeochemical cycles.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Farhad Ghafouri-Kesbi, Pouya Zamani, Morteza Mokhtari
Summary: This study analyzed data on Zandi sheep and found that maternal and paternal imprinting, X chromosome, and litter effects significantly contribute to the phenotypic variation in various traits. It was concluded that including maternal and paternal imprinting, X chromosome, and litter effects in the genetic evaluation models is important for accurately estimating breeding values.
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL BREEDING AND GENETICS
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Maria Natalia Umana, Beatriz Salgado-Negret, Natalia Norden, Viviana Salinas, Fabian Garzon, Sandra P. Medina, M. Gina M. Rodriguez, Rene Lopez-Camacho, Alejandro Castano-Naranjo, Hermes Cuadros, Rebeca Franke-Ante, Andres Avella, Alvaro Idarraga-Piedrahita, Ruben Jurado, Jhon Nieto, Camila Pizano, Alba M. Torres, Hernando Garcia, M. Roy Gonzalez
Summary: We investigated the effects of trait trade-offs on tree communities in tropical dry forests and found that conservative wood and leaf traits were associated with slower tree growth, increased tree survival, and higher species abundance and dominance at the community level. Safe hydraulic traits, on the other hand, were related to demographic processes but did not affect species abundance and communities. The persistent effects of the conservative-acquisitive trade-off suggest potential generalizability and predictability of tree communities, while the safety-efficient trade-off showed more intricate effects on performance.
Article
Forestry
Xuemin Ye, Wensheng Bu, Xiaofei Hu, Bin Liu, Kuan Liang, Fusheng Chen
Summary: This study investigated the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilization on seedling leaf traits and net primary productivity of two dominant tree species in China's subtropical forests. The results showed that nitrogen had a stronger effect on seedling leaf traits than phosphorus, and the response to fertilization varied among species. Other leaf functional traits, canopy closure, litter biomass, and relative growth rate also showed species-specific responses to fertilization.
JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Thomas J. Loffler, Heike Lischke
Summary: This study examines the influence of intrinsic growth rates of species on community stability and finds that changes in the relative intrinsic growth rates of competing species have a strong effect on community stability.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Forough Soheili, Mehdi Heydari, Stephen Woodward, Hamid Reza Naji
Summary: Leaf traits vary across different climatic conditions and can reveal evolutionary changes within a species made to adapt to the environment. In this study, leaf morphology and anatomical structures were analyzed in Quercus brantii in Western Iran to examine the adaptive strategies of plants in different climates. The plants showed increased dry matter content in a Mediterranean climate and increased leaf length, specific leaf area, stomata dimensions, trichome dimensions, and trichome density in different climatic conditions. Strong correlations were found between stomatal pore index and stomata dimensions. These findings provide insights into the adaptive strategies of plants to environmental changes at the morphological and anatomical levels.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
Nianpeng He, Pu Yan, Congcong Liu, Li Xu, Mingxu Li, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Guangsheng Zhou, Guoyi Zhou, Shirong Liu, Xuhui Zhou, Shenggong Li, Shuli Niu, Xingguo Han, Thomas N. Buckley, Lawren Sack, Guirui Yu
Summary: With the rapid accumulation of plant trait data, there are major opportunities to integrate these data into predicting ecosystem primary productivity across different spatial extents. However, scaling up to the ecosystem scale has remained challenging. This study demonstrates the need to combine community-level traits and environmental factors to predict ecosystem productivity at landscape or biogeographic scales, and highlights the potential for integrating traits into ecological models to estimate productivity-related ecosystem functions and anticipate the response of terrestrial ecosystems to global change.
TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Yanhua Huang, Zehui Zheng, Xiaojing Bi, Kai Guo, Shulin Liu, Xuexue Huo, Danyang Tian, Huayue Liu, Lei Wang, Yunwei Zhang
Summary: This study investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying the functions of oAANAT in switchgrass growth, flowering, and defense. The overexpression of oAANAT in transgenic plants leads to the modulation of cell elongation, regulation of flowering through photoperiod and GA pathways, enhancement of photosynthetic efficiency via leaf anatomical structures, stomatal development, and chlorophyll metabolism, as well as the activation of defense responses and strategies. These findings provide valuable insights into the roles of oAANAT in switchgrass and serve as a starting point for further analyses.
Article
Forestry
Louis S. Santiago
Summary: This study investigates the differentiation in stem and leaf traits among sympatric lianas, scandent shrubs, and trees in a subalpine cold temperate forest.
Article
Plant Sciences
Nabil Elsheery, V. S. J. Sunoj, Y. Wen, J. J. Zhu, G. Muralidharan, K. F. Cao
PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY
(2020)
Article
Forestry
Gbadamassi G. O. Dossa, Ekananda Paudel, Douglas Schaefer, Jiao-Lin Zhang, Kun-Fang Cao, Jian-Chu Xu, Rhett D. Harrison
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2020)
Letter
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kamaljit S. Bawa, Eben Goodale, Wambura Mtemi, You-Fang Chen, Ranjit Barthakur, Uromi Manage Goodale, Jianguo Liu, Aiwu Jiang, Christos Mammides, Madhava Meegaskumbura, Maharaj K. Pandit, Kun-Fang Cao
Article
Forestry
Amy Ny Aina Aritsara, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: This study assessed the anatomical characteristics of two palm stems and found that the royal palm has better water transport and mechanical support capabilities compared to the king palm. A trade-off was observed between ground parenchyma and fiber fraction in the king palm. The functional sectoriality of xylem tissues may help reduce constraints between water transport, storage, and mechanical support in palm stems.
Article
Plant Sciences
Amy Ny Aina Aritsara, Vonjisoa M. Razakandraibe, Tahiana Ramananantoandro, Sean M. Gleason, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: This study found that the axial parenchyma fraction and vessel-to-axial parenchyma connectivity are related to the hydraulic efficiency and safety of angiosperms. Species with higher APf and connectivity between vessels and axial parenchyma showed higher hydraulic conductivity, while species with high ray parenchyma fraction and vessel-to-ray connectivity had lower K-s.
Article
Ecology
Qi-Wei Zhang, Shi-Dan Zhu, Steven Jansen, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: The study investigated the embolism resistance of xylem in 17 evergreen species in karst hills of Southwest China, and found that plant water potential decreases with relative altitude while stem and leaf xylem show increasing resistance to hydraulic dysfunction. Plant hydraulic safety largely shapes the niche differentiation and community assembly in highly heterogeneous and water-limited landscapes.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Soil Science
Gbadamassi G. O. Dossa, Yun-Qiang Yang, Weiming Hu, Ekananda Paudel, Douglas Schaefer, Yong-Ping Yang, Kun-Fang Cao, Jian-Chu Xu, Kathryn E. Bushley, Rhett D. Harrison
Summary: Fungi play a crucial role in decomposing woody debris in forests. Changes in fungal diversity and composition were found to influence wood decomposition rates, with wood species and termite presence being key factors impacting fungal diversity. Although fungal diversity was not a significant predictor of wood specific gravity loss, functional replacement was identified as a potential mechanism explaining similar decomposition rates across disturbance gradient.
SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Zafar Siddiq, Ya-Jun Chen, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: Large-diameter hail is rare in the lowland tropics, making its impact on water flux responses of trees and lianas unknown. A study conducted in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in southern Yunnan, China, found that the impact of a severe hailstorm on sap flux density of tropical trees and lianas was mild or neglectable. This study enhances our understanding of water flux in tropical woody species exposed to hailstorm events.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Joeri S. Strijk, Damien D. Hinsinger, Mareike M. Roeder, Lars W. Chatrou, Thomas L. P. Couvreur, Roy H. J. Erkens, Herve Sauquet, Michael D. Pirie, Daniel C. Thomas, Kunfang Cao
Summary: This study presents a chromosome-level genome assembly of the soursop, providing essential genomic resources for breeders and evolutionary researchers. The genome has low heterozygosity, high repeat sequence content, and annotation of a significant number of protein-coding genes. Population size reconstruction reveals a gradual contraction over time, indicating a potential correlation with Cenozoic climate changes.
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Xinyi Guan, Luciano Pereira, Scott A. M. McAdam, Kun-Fang Cao, Steven Jansen
Summary: The spread of embolism in dehydrating angiosperm xylem is influenced by gas movement between embolized and sap-filled conduits. Cutting minor veins showed limited embolism spreading near the cuts prior to major veins, and embolism propagation may be affected by proximity and connectivity to pre-existing embolism as a gas source.ContainerGapncy to pre-existing embolism as a gas source may facilitate embolism formation.
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Sonal Mathur, Valiaparambil Sebastian John Sunoj, Nabil Ibrahim Elsheery, Vangimalla R. Reddy, Anjana Jajoo, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: This study focused on PSII heterogeneity in two sugarcane cultivars under chilling stress, revealing that chilling stress negatively affects PSII performance, particularly in Guitang 49. The results suggest that PSII heterogeneity can be utilized as a novel technique for evaluating plant responses to environmental stress.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Muhammad Umar Hayyat, Zafar Siddiq, Rashid Mahmood, Amin U. Khan, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: The study found that limestone quarry waste promoted the growth of two native plant species by providing essential minerals for their growth, therefore no additional amelioration would be needed. The growth of plants was influenced by the mineral content in the limestone quarry waste.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Guo-Feng Jiang, Timothy J. Brodribb, Adam B. Roddy, Jin-Yan Lei, Huai-Tong Si, Pratima Pahadi, Yong-Jiang Zhang, Kun-Fang Cao
Summary: The physiological mechanisms of drought responses in mangroves, specifically involving gas exchange, ABA concentration, and vulnerability to embolism, vary between species such as Avicennia marina and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza. A. marina exhibits higher photosynthesis and transpiration compared to B. gymnorrhiza under well-watered conditions, with differing cavitation resistance and stomatal control strategies in response to drought stress.
Article
Forestry
Dong-Liu Huang, Zhong-Guo Li, Wei Xiang, Kun-Fang Cao, Shi-Dan Zhu
Summary: This study found that hydraulic safety-related traits are good predictors of the long-term growth rate of economically important timber tree species planted in degraded dry karst areas. These findings provide guidelines to improve the efficiency of future ecological restoration.
TREES-STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Huayang Chen, Nalaka Geekiyanage, Bin Wen, Kun-Fang Cao, Uromi Manage Goodale
Summary: The study revealed that hemiepiphytic Ficus species are better adapted to drier and warmer conditions, showing higher germination and seedling survival rates. In contrast, non-hemiepipytic species had higher germination rates under greater water stress. Hemiepiphytic Ficus species germinated more readily at higher relative humidity levels.