Showing papers in "Flora in 2017"

TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluated changes in floristic composition, structure, diversity, and life forms spectra along an altitudinal gradient in the rupestrian grasslands in south-eastern Espinhaco Mountains Range.

TL;DR: The whole plant response to drought stress is addressed and it is asked if photosynthetic and hydraulic traits appear bundled together as a “coordinated” response, or if these traits operate largely independently of one another.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a dataset on the composition of South American woody plant communities (4,637 community surveys, with 115 representing campos rupestres), combined with environmental data, with the aim of characterising and explaining compositional variation of the campos Ruprestres woody flora.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight knowledge gaps in plant life in campo rupestre and suggest priority avenues of future research and steps forward to understand and preserve ancient ecosystems worldwide.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors place the Brazilian campos rupestres into a global perspective and discuss questions if the Brazilian Campos rupsres are a grassland or savanna, if they are zonal, and if there are some habitat complexes (and vegetation) ecologically analogous to the Campos Rupsres found on other continents than South America.

TL;DR: This study provides support for the concept of floral pollination syndromes by demonstrating the existence of strong associations between floral phenotypes and pollinators in a region of high biodiversity.

TL;DR: A significant difference in insect visitation between genotypes is found, as predicted by floral phenotype differences found for these true-breeding lines, and a strong interaction between genotype and treatment, suggesting that differences in genotype responses to nitrogen treatments result in differential insect behavior patterns.

TL;DR: Stomatal traits such as size, density or the distribution between the two sides of the leaf are indicators of how species optimize carbon uptake and balance water loss and radiation gain.

TL;DR: Comparison of anatomical features with nutrient uptake rates of roots of 18 taxa of epiphytic orchids finds that species with the largest relative velamen area facilitate the flow of water and nutrients, and species with larger relative proportion of vascular cylinder and cortex have a greater number of protoxylem strands and passage cells of the endodermis.

TL;DR: The results suggest that the studied cactus species would be severely affected by changes in temperature and precipitation as predicted under a climate change scenario.

TL;DR: It was concluded that invasion of H. suaveolens has a marked influence on the vegetation of periurban ecosystems, and causes depletion of several economically important species, and calls for an immediate action for the management of this noxious alien weed.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed a systematic conservation plan for all the threatened plant species and pinpointed priority regions for taking different conservation actions in the southern Espinhaco mountains in Brazil.

TL;DR: Overall species richness increased with elevation, but the richness of ground-living, terrestrial species showed the lowest elevational increase by only 50%, whereas epiphytic richness increased fourfold to tenfold; these differences presumably reflect the stronger influence of increasing environmental humidity on the water-limited epipHYtic assemblages.

TL;DR: The ability of the seeds to germinate at high NaCl concentrations reveals a potential growth of O. ficus-indica in close coastline areas and in soils with high salt concentrations, which could be important to predict where this species will spread in the Mediterranean Basin, threatening the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems.

TL;DR: Micromorphological, histochemical and ultrastructural investigations on the indumentum of vegetative and reproductive organs were carried out for Salvia uliginosa Benth, finding a similar, complex chemical nature of the secretory products for both types of trichomes: lipids, terpenes, phenols and flavonoids.

TL;DR: The results indicate that seeds Z. propinquum were moderately salt tolerant and preferred to germinate under moderate temperatures and in the presence of light, suggesting at greater role of osmotic constraint than the specific ion effects.

TL;DR: Observations of the early onset and duration of functional mucilaginous trichomes of Thelypteridaceae, the physicochemical nature of the secretion and the location of these trichome indicate that the product of these structures provides protection for the apical meristem and young leaves from excessive sunlight and high levels of transpiration, thereby reducing water loss.

TL;DR: The anatomic characters presented here are of great importance for the species that live in savanna environments, demonstrating plasticity and contributing to the protection of the leaves to the diverse biotic and abiotic factors to which they are subject, ensuring the survival of the species.

TL;DR: Observation of the South African stapeliad Orbea lutea subsp.

TL;DR: It is assumed that both (E)-β-ocimene and (E-epoxyocimenes, either alone or mixed with other floral VOCs, play a major role in the specific association between these two orchids and their exclusive euglossine pollinator.

TL;DR: Clonal plants may mitigate trade-offs between the potential ecological advantages of physiological integration and fragmentation by maintaining rates of vegetative reproduction after fragmentation, even when total growth is reduced.

TL;DR: Investigation of the glandular trichomes of aboveground organs of the white horehound showed that the glands contained various substances such as lipids, polysaccharides, phenolic compounds, terpenes, tannins, and flavonoids.

TL;DR: The story of the oil flower pollination system focusing primarily on oil bees is brought up to date and increased knowledge about the numbers of plants and bees partnering in this syndrome is pointed out.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the spatial patterns of tree species, and discussed the degree to which variation in species distribution patterns depends on topographic variation, and showed that topographical and neutral progresses jointly contribute to the maintenance of species composition, and their relative importance varies with spatial scale.

TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-anatomy of the immune responses of mosquitoes to various types of fruit flies and some of the mechanisms behind their decline have been described.

TL;DR: The impact of local habitat parameters on the tree species functional traits showed that habitat heterogeneity is essential in structuring tree communities in this natural archipelago of forest islands, and points to chemical indicators of soil fertility as a relevant environmental promoter, influencing the composition and structure of island tree communities.

TL;DR: In this paper, permanent soil water stress had impacted on crown die-back of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica L.) at their drought limit in near-natural temperate forests of Germany and Switzerland.

TL;DR: It was shown that morphological, ecophysiological and growth responses to soil flooding paralleled their anatomy and ultrastructure adaptations in leaves and roots, which enabled plant-internal aeration so that maintain aerobic respiration and basic root activities under flooding condition.

TL;DR: Results indicate that the increase of proline was accompanied by a decrease of total polyamines in A. prostrata while P. coronopus had high total polyamine levels with low values of pro line, demonstrating that these plants use different strategies to adapt to saline environments.

TL;DR: In this article, the thermal thresholds for germination of bromeliads from campos rupestres in order to verify if sympatric species have similar thermal requirements.