Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges
Trinidad's Aripo Savanna is a rare example of an intact tropical grassland. It is a living laboratory in which to explore the mechanisms used by plants to survive the stress of life in the full glare of the equatorial sun. We found that the dominant species, Lagenocarpus rigidus, avoids overhea...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2013
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875122/ |
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pubmed-38751222013-12-30 Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges John-Bejai, C. Farrell, A. D. Cooper, F. M. Oatham, M. P. Research Articles Trinidad's Aripo Savanna is a rare example of an intact tropical grassland. It is a living laboratory in which to explore the mechanisms used by plants to survive the stress of life in the full glare of the equatorial sun. We found that the dominant species, Lagenocarpus rigidus, avoids overheating not through higher transpiration or more reflective leaf surfaces (as expected), but by altering the size and shape of its leaves to suit each location. This plasticity in leaf morphology is combined with plasticity in cell membrane properties, which allows the leaves to tolerate periods of extreme heat. In the absence of these traits a closely related species Lagenocarpus guianensis, finds its range restricted to the shaded savanna edges where heat and light are less overbearing Oxford University Press 2013-11-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3875122/ /pubmed/24379971 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aobpla/plt051 Text en Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
John-Bejai, C. Farrell, A. D. Cooper, F. M. Oatham, M. P. |
| spellingShingle |
John-Bejai, C. Farrell, A. D. Cooper, F. M. Oatham, M. P. Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| author_facet |
John-Bejai, C. Farrell, A. D. Cooper, F. M. Oatham, M. P. |
| author_sort |
John-Bejai, C. |
| title |
Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| title_short |
Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| title_full |
Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| title_fullStr |
Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| title_sort |
contrasting physiological responses to excess heat and irradiance in two tropical savanna sedges |
| description |
Trinidad's Aripo Savanna is a rare example of an intact tropical grassland. It is a living laboratory in which to explore the mechanisms used by plants to survive the stress of life in the full glare of the equatorial sun. We found that the dominant species, Lagenocarpus rigidus, avoids overheating not through higher transpiration or more reflective leaf surfaces (as expected), but by altering the size and shape of its leaves to suit each location. This plasticity in leaf morphology is combined with plasticity in cell membrane properties, which allows the leaves to tolerate periods of extreme heat. In the absence of these traits a closely related species Lagenocarpus guianensis, finds its range restricted to the shaded savanna edges where heat and light are less overbearing |
| publisher |
Oxford University Press |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875122/ |
| _version_ |
1612042247278166016 |