Broadly distributed species encompass populations spread across habitats that vary in their climatic, edaphic and biotic environmental characteristics. The success of broadly distributed species across a wide range of environmental conditions is, in part, determined by their ability to maintain fitness and positive population growth rates across the range of local environmental conditions encountered by […]

Large-scale environmental changes such as aridification have shaped and continue to influence the evolution and composition of biomes. As conditions change, organisms may persist in some parts of their ranges, become extinct in others, or may migrate into newly available or previously inaccessible ecologically favourable regions. Much of Australia is covered by an arid zone […]

Sympatric flowering species must frequently share pollinators. Pollinators can be a limited resource for the sexual reproduction of a plant, and such sharing could decrease individual reproductive success through the effects of different forms of competition. Many bromeliad species are sympatric and share pollinators. Bats are important pollinators of many Neotropical plants, including the Bromeliaceae; […]

The soil environment that natural populations of plants are exposed to is quite complex. Bacteria represent major players in the soil with cell numbers thought to approach 1 × 109 –1.5 × 1010 per gram of soil constituting over 4000 unique genomes. These bacteria participate heavily in nutrient cycling, as well as intimate crosstalk with sporophyte roots. […]

Hunting in otherwise intact tropical forests removes organisms from some trophic levels, which can change population and community dynamics at other levels. The preferred game species can be dispersers of seeds (e.g. primates, large birds), predators of seeds (e.g. rodents), browsers of juvenile plants (e.g. ungulates) or disturbers of the forest floor (e.g. pigs or […]

Assessments of eco-evolutionary mechanisms that shape the genetic structure of populations are important to understand the influence of environmental changes on plant ecosystems.In recent years, molecular markers greatly improved our ability to assess genetic differentiation within and among species. However, due to genome complexity and limited access to suitable genomic resources, phylogenetic investigations remain challenging, […]

Mountain ranges host a considerable number of endemic species, which is considered to be the result of the complex origin of mountain ranges, shaped by geographic isolation, climate changes and strong microhabitat differentiation. The distribution of narrowly endemic species often coincides with Pleistocene refugia, suggesting that Pleistocene climate fluctuations had major impacts on the biogeography […]

Papaya is the most economically important species within the Caricaceae family and it is widely cultivated not only for fruit consumption, but also for the proteolytic enzyme papain, which has several commercial and medical uses. The Golden genotype of papaya (Carica papaya), named for its yellowish leaves, produces fruits very much appreciated by consumers worldwide. […]

Generally, higher land plants do not grow under submerged conditions and aquatic plants cannot grow in terrestrial conditions. On the other hand, amphibious plants are able to live under both terrestrial and submerged conditions. The amphibious species Hygrophila difformis develops serrated and dissected leaves when grown in terrestrial and submerged conditions, respectively. Furthermore, dissected leaves develop when […]

Plant populations continually change over space and time. Many factors contribute to this differentiation with some resulting in evolutionary change. Unravelling the relative importance of ecological and genetic components of population differentiation is of paramount relevance to understand the future of plant biodiversity in a rapidly changing world. It is also critical that we determinethe […]

Plants rely on seed dispersal vectors — for example, animals, wind and water — to move across the landscape. Through dispersal, plants may experience reduced exposure to competition, predation and parasitism; colonize open habitats after disturbance; reach potential suitable microsites in otherwise unsuitable landscapes; track climate fluctuations and environmental change; and contribute to gene flow […]

Although iron (Fe) is abundant in the earth’s crust, it is largely unavailable for plants, especially those growing in alkaline and calcareous soils. Higher plants such as graminaceous plants and dicots acquire iron in the form of phytosiderophores, which solubilize ferric Fe in the rhizosphere. When Fe uptake is very low in plants, they often […]