In stressful environments, nurse elements, such as shrubs or rocks, facilitate plant recruitment by providing less severe environments for seed germination and seedling survival. As seedlings develop, however, they may compete for resources with their nurse when it is a plant instead of a rock. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Loayza et […]

The ongoing destruction of old-growth forests puts tropical forest species, with epiphytes as a key element, under great pressure. To maintain viable epiphyte communities in fragmented landscapes, remaining habitable patches have to be sufficiently connected. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Einzmann and Zotz experimentally studied four vital dispersal steps of a vascular […]

Bambi, heart-warming film or horror flick? The connection between deer and invasive species is complicated.

Experiments clearly demonstrated that plants competing with clonal sibling plants invested more in clonal reproduction as compared to plants competing with non-siblings.

The decomposability of fine roots and their potential to contribute to soil carbon (C) is partly regulated by their tissue chemical composition. In a recent Editor’s Choice article published in AoB PLANTS, Suseela et al. examined the effects of elevated CO2 and warming on the quantity and composition of suberin in the roots of a […]

The addition of new nodes to shoots is an essential mechanism for understanding and modelling canopy growth but surprisingly, there is very little research on the factors that control the phyllochron in tree species. It is often assumed that the phyllochron is regulated by temperature and is consistent among all shoot types. A new study published […]

Maintaining genetic integrity is essential for in situ and ex situ conservation of crop wild relative (CWR) species. However, introgression of crop alleles into CWR species/populations may change their genetic structure and diversity, resulting in more invasive weeds or, in contrast, the extinction of endangered populations. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Jin […]

Climate change is expected to cause (sub)arctic plant species to move polewards to track their climatic niche. However, rapid migration requires recruitment from seed, which is rare in arctic regions where most plants reproduce vegetatively. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Milbau et al. examined whether recruitment from seed would improve under warmer […]

Monoterpene emissions from conifer tree species (from de novo synthesis and storage pools) play an important role in plant ecology and physiology. During drought stress the two emission sources are affected differently, but they are difficult to separate using conventional measuring techniques. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Lüpke et al. used 13CO2 […]

Islands contain some of the most remarkable yet imperiled plants anywhere on Earth. Despite remarkable ecological/morphological diversity, insular endemics often retain the ability to hybridize and produce vigorous, fertile progeny. In a recent study published in AoB PLANTS, Kerbs et al. analysed several generations of synthetic interspecific hybrids between two species endemic to the Canary […]

AoB PLANTS, the Open Access journal for environmental and evolutionary plant biology, is looking for a new Editor-in-Chief. Published through Oxford University Press, this journal is dedicated to rapid publication of research articles, reviews, commentaries and short communications. AoB PLANTS provides a fast-track pathway for publishing high-quality research in an open-access environment, where papers are […]

Sun-loving plants react to changes in light quality caused by neighbouring plants via “shade avoidance” responses, including vertical elongation, upward orientation of leaves and reduced branching/tillering. Such responses are favoured by natural selection because they increase the fitness of individuals, but they can be disadvantageous for crops because they reduce the allocation of resources to […]