The dunes of barrier islands erode during storm events but they also prevent damage to inland ecosystems. For these dunes to function in this way, vegetation recovery between storm events is essential. Characteristic of dune-building grasses, growth of roots and shoots increases as sand accumulates at the base, forming a new dune over time. Factors […]

Climate change-induced drought has already contributed to increased plant mortality around the globe, including in forest ecosystems. Drought events are projected to become even more frequent in forests in the future and so, research into the drought responses of woody plants is an area of growing importance. Plants have two important attributes that regulate water […]

It's the colours you cannot see that are important to the bees of Cameroon.

A study of deer browsing has uncovered the contribution of soil chemistry to ‘the ghost of herbivory past’.

Why do some places have more invasive species than others? Essl and colleagues look at human action.

How do grasses make cellulose for cell walls? Brabham and colleagues have been examining the genes.

Salt stress is a major limiting factor for crop production across the world. Rice is particularly sensitive to salinity, with both plant growth and grain yield significantly impaired under saline conditions. However, the ability to tolerate salt differs with the growth stages of the plant as well as varying across different varieties of rice. Some […]

Can rhizobacteria in the soil help plants' systemic resistance to infection?

Hybridization is thought to be a primary trigger of plant invasions, due to short term hybrid vigour of early generations or increased evolutionary potential in later generations. Yet despite widespread appreciation of the link between hybridization and invasion, few studies have actually tested whether hybridization during invasion reflects short-term vs. advanced generations of introgression. One […]

Selenium is an essential element for animal health, but it can be also be toxic in high concentrations. Plants are known to exploit this by storing high levels of selenium in their leaves and effectively poisoning herbivores and pathogens. Yet, there can be costs associated with accumulation of selenium in plant tissues, including oxidative stress […]

The distribution and abundance of plants across the world depends in part on their ability to move, which is commonly characterized by a dispersal kernel (a probability density function describing where seeds land relative to the parent plant). The total dispersal kernel (TDK) describes the combined influence of all primary, secondary, and higher-order dispersal vectors […]

Spatial separation of stamen and stigma (herkogamy) is an effective way for angiosperm species to reduce sexual interference and prevent self-pollination. It can however also reduce the possibility of pollinators contacting both sexual organs. For, example, pollen may be deposited on a site of the pollinator’s body that will not come into contact with the […]