How does drought influence the photochemical performance of reproductive structures of native and exotic bunchgrasses of the Great Basin?
Continue reading Photochemical performance of bunchgrass reproductive structures
There’s more recognition that ecological restoration can be an essential tool in fighting climate change, and there are many projects aimed at restoring degraded forests to capture carbon. Still, the focus on forests ignores much of the land in the tropics that would not naturally be forested. A team of scientists is arguing that people need to become aware of other habitats and their value.
Continue reading Trees alone will not save us
How do reproductive effort, genetic diversity and mating systems vary across the range of a seagrass population?
Continue reading Variation in reproduction and genetic diversity across seagrass meadows in Western Australia
Degraded tropical forests are not lost causes. Restoration could help capture carbon and aid ecosystem recovery.
Continue reading View from the sky sees new hope for restoring degraded forests
What makes orchids unique can also make saving them a challenge.
Continue reading Orchid conservation must be guided by an understanding of their ecology
Rapid restoration isn’t always the best restoration, when the restoring species is invasive.
Continue reading When speed is a problem in mangrove restoration
For pioneer species in the marshes, it’s a case of grow fast or die young. But the differences in growth speed can be caused by tiny changes in geography.
Continue reading Even a small change in topography can help tides drive an oxygen pump
Ephemeral seagrasses provide important marine habitats, but are under threat due to human activity. Whitehead et al. develop a new functional-structural environmentally dependant model, in order to integrate existing knowledge of ephemeral seagrass growth dynamics and to assess potential management options, such as transplantation. The model is parameterised for a population of Halophila stipulacea (Hydrocharitaceae) in the Persian Gulf, and is able to successfully simulate its dynamic structural growth patterns. The model is freely available and easily adapted for new species and locations, although validation for more species and environments is required This paper is part of the Annals of...
Continue reading Simulating ephemeral seagrass growth
Successful orchid germination, embryo development and seedling establishment require the presence of mycorrhizal fungi. However, little is known about the orchid seed germination niche requirements in situ, especially regarding the role and host specificity of mycorrhizal fungi during germination and subsequent seedling development. Hoang et al. describe the array of effects of the co-culture of mycorrhizal fungal strains, isolated from the roots of the endangered leafless Ghost orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii), on in vitro seed germination, seedling anatomy and developmental morphology. The fungal strain Dlin-394 was confirmed as a possible Ghost orchid germination mycobiont, which significantly promoted seed germination and seedling...
Continue reading Ghost orchid symbiotic seed germination
Germination cues reflect the conditions under which a species is likely to succeed in recruitment. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Lai et al. evaluated the seed germination responses of seven desert species to temperature and light and explored the implications for vegetation restoration. Both temperature and photon irradiance influenced the germination of these species. Based on these results and the environmental conditions of their natural habitat, suggestions about plant choices for different habitats including shifting sand dunes, semi-fixed sand dunes and fixed sand dunes are given.
Continue reading Seed germination of seven desert plants and implications for vegetation restoration
Many ecosystems have been degraded or modified, and these are the sorts of systems you target for restoration. But when a system has been altered so much the original species might not be the best choice to bring it back to health. Therefore, says Thomas Jones, you need to look at alternative species. A paper from BioScience has caught my eye. In Ecologically Appropriate Plant Materials for Restoration Applications Thomas Jones argues that restoration might go better sometimes if you bring in some novel species to a site. What I find interesting is that it tackles the question what does...
Continue reading The ‘natural’ solution might not be best when your wildlife isn’t natural
Several ecologically important plant families in Mediterranean biomes have seeds with morphophysiological dormancy. Hidayati et al. study four species of the intractably dormant Australian genus Hibbertia (Dilleniaceae) and find that although they are congeneric, sympatric and produce seeds of identical morphology, they show a remarkable level of variation in dormancy-break and germination requirements. The results have important implications for current classification systems of seed dormancy and highlight the difficulties, and caution required, in extrapolating dormancy requirements in biodiverse regions such as the south-west Australian biodiversity hotspot.
Continue reading Variable seed dormancy and germination in Hibbertia
Transplanting seagrasses can help restore ecologically important and threatened marine ecosystems. Based on the L-system formalism, Renton et al. present a functional–structural plant model of seagrass growth that integrates data collected from short-term trials and experiments for Posidonia australis. They use the model to conduct an evaluation of different transplanting strategies and find that reasonable long-term outcomes can be predicted, based only on short-term data. Marine restoration represents a novel application of functional–structural plant modelling.
Continue reading Modelling seagrass growth and developmentBotany One is a blog run by the Annals of Botany Company, a non-profit educational charity.
In addition to Botany One, the company currently publishes three journals, the Annals of Botany, AoB PLANTS, and in silico Plants.
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