Document: BAZ-3-99-167

Directions in plant physiological ecology since the 1984 Asilomar meeting.

BAZZAZ, F.A.* ¹ and R.W.PEARCY ²

Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138-3800 USA ¹
University of California, Davis CA 95616-8500 USA ²

Abstract:
Plant physiological ecology has undergone many changes since the 1984 Asilomar meeting that considered the state of the field at that time and made recommendations regarding its future development (See Ehleringer, JR. Pearcy, RW, and Mooney, HA. 1986. Bull. Ecol. Soc. Amer. 67:48-58). Up to then much emphasis had been on process studies of resource acquisition and stress responses. These are still important areas of research, but increasingly the emphasis has shifted to understanding how these processes at the organ and whole-plant level scale to ecosystem function. Both the development of new techniques for scaling, such as stable isotope and whole-plant water flux methodology, and research imperatives arising from environmental change issues are important drivers of this trend. In addition, linkages with molecular biology, though still in their infancy, are leading to a better understanding of cellular and metabolic functions and their integration into whole-plant environmental responses. Studies at the organismal level have increasingly focused on the integration of plant processes. For example, investigation of root function and its integration into whole plant responses was in its infancy in 1984 but now is a major area of research. During this period studies of responses to neighbors as mediated by signals and resources also developed, leading to a greater appreciation of the role of plasticity in the short-term, and of the evolutionary responses to it in the long term.

Keywords: whole-plant

This abstract is being presented at: 1:25 PM in session:
Symposium # 16: Plant Physiological Ecology: Linking the Organism to Scales Above and Below.