Description
Book SynopsisAnswers to practical questions about plant growth are sought with increasing urgency. Climate change is affecting the stability of vegetation, the yield of many important crops, and there is a continual need for ever more productive varieties to feed a growing global population. Answering questions posed by these problems requires a more integrated understanding of how plants function in producing growth. This book shows how this understanding can be achieved. First and foremost, plant growth must be defined as a dynamic system with developmental, morphological, and physiological processes responding to fluctuations in the environment due to weather, changes in the architecture of the plant as it grows, and the effects of plants on their environment: connecting these processes in a complete system is the essential integration. Part I shows, for contrasting plant types, that developmental, morphological, and physiological processes must all be considered to explain differences in growth
Table of ContentsPreface 1: Introduction Part I:Variation in Plant Structure and Physiology During Growth 2: Effects of changes in development and plant form on growth 3: Multiple effects of variation in light on the photosynthesis system Part II: Plant Control Systems 4: Control processes of plant growth 5: Processes producing organisation in the plant 6: Stability of the photosynthesis system Part III: The Dynamics of the Relationship Between Architecture and Growth 7: Variation in architectural dynamics and its effects on growth 8: Growth within foliage canopies Part IV: Growth Responses to Environmental Change 9: Growth in a fluctuating environment 10: The aging plant 11: Conclusion
