Friday 6 December 2013

Ecophysiology of tropical bryophytes in the face of climate change: recent advances...

A new book on Photosynthesis in bryophytes and early land plants has been published!

In one of this book's chapter, Wagner et al. from the University of Oldenburg (Germany) give a state of knowledge on the ecophysiology of tropical bryophytes, in relation of bryophytes abundance and distribution along elevational gradients. They hypothesized that low abundance of bryophytes in the lowland forests could be related to the physiology of tropical bryophytes especially the relationships between levels of hydration, light intensity, CO2 and temperature on Carbon balance... In the face of climate change, lowland bryophyte communities could be seriously affected, as they found that carbon balance depends on daily hydration patterns.

On the same line, this team published a recent article entitled Wagner et al. (2013) "Altitudinal changes in temperature responses of net photosynthesis and dark respiration in tropical bryophytes" Annals of Botany 111: 455-465, they show that temperature is not a main driver of tropical bryophytes distribution with elevation.

Previously, Bader et al. 2013,  stated in their article that "Differences in desiccation tolerance do not explain altitudinal distribution patterns of tropical bryophytes"from the Journal of Bryology 35: 47-56.

Interesting research to follow up!


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