Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

A conceptual framework for the study of modular responses to local environmental heterogeneity within the plant crown and a review of related concepts

A conceptual framework for the study of modular responses to local environmental heterogeneity... Plants respond to local heterogeneity in abiotic and biotic conditions by changing module‐level morphology, growth, and reproductive patterns. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the study of modular responses in plant crowns, clarifies the points that should be considered for scaling up from modular responses to the consequences at the whole‐plant level, characterizes the interspecific differences in modular response patterns, and discusses their ecological significance. The modular response was defined as either autonomous or interactive, depending on whether the response of a module to its local condition is independent from the conditions of other modules. For evaluation of the autonomy of the modular response, the importance of considering positional relationships and organizational levels of modules was then proposed as these internally affect the modular response pattern, and their interspecific differences were characterized using several concepts. The identification of an autonomous modular unit is essential for scaling up module‐level studies to the whole plant. For understanding the ecological significance of the modular response, further interspecific comparisons and assessments of the scale and the predictability of environmental heterogeneity are required. The conceptual framework will be useful for such purposes. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Ecological Research Wiley

A conceptual framework for the study of modular responses to local environmental heterogeneity within the plant crown and a review of related concepts

Kawamura, Koji
Ecological Research , Volume 25 (4) – Jul 1, 2010
Download PDF
12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/a-conceptual-framework-for-the-study-of-modular-responses-to-local-fTFBNn40nJ

References (123)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© The Ecological Society of Japan
ISSN
0912-3814
eISSN
1440-1703
DOI
10.1007/s11284-009-0688-0
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Plants respond to local heterogeneity in abiotic and biotic conditions by changing module‐level morphology, growth, and reproductive patterns. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the study of modular responses in plant crowns, clarifies the points that should be considered for scaling up from modular responses to the consequences at the whole‐plant level, characterizes the interspecific differences in modular response patterns, and discusses their ecological significance. The modular response was defined as either autonomous or interactive, depending on whether the response of a module to its local condition is independent from the conditions of other modules. For evaluation of the autonomy of the modular response, the importance of considering positional relationships and organizational levels of modules was then proposed as these internally affect the modular response pattern, and their interspecific differences were characterized using several concepts. The identification of an autonomous modular unit is essential for scaling up module‐level studies to the whole plant. For understanding the ecological significance of the modular response, further interspecific comparisons and assessments of the scale and the predictability of environmental heterogeneity are required. The conceptual framework will be useful for such purposes.

Journal

Ecological Research – Wiley

Published: Jul 1, 2010

Keywords: ; ; ; ;

There are no references for this article.