2008_Book_Plant Physiological Ecology.pdf

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Plant Physiological Ecology
Second Edition
Hans Lambers
Thijs L. Pons
F. Stuart Chapin III
Plant Physiological
Ecology
Second Edition
13
Hans Lambers
The University of Western Australia
Crawley, WA
Australia
hans.lambers@uwa.edu.au
Thijs L. Pons
Utrecht University
The Netherlands
T.L.Pons@bio.uu.nl
F. Stuart Chapin III
University of Alaska
Fairbanks, AK
USA
terry.chapin@uaf.edu
ISBN 978-0-387-78340-6
ISBN 978-0-387-78341-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-78341-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008931587
#
2008 Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the
publisher (Springer ScienceþBusiness Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts
in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is
forbidden.
The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as
such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
Printed on acid-free paper
springer.com
Foreword to Second Edition
In the decade that has passed since the first edition of this book, the global environ-
ment has changed rapidly. Even the most steadfast ‘‘deny-ers’’ have come to accept
that atmospheric CO
2
enrichment and global warming pose serious challenges to
life on Earth. Regrettably, this acceptance has been forced by calamitous events
rather than by the long-standing, sober warnings of the scientific community.
There seems to be growing belief that ‘‘technology’’ will save us from the worst
consequences of a warmer planet and its wayward weather. This hope, that may in
the end prove to be no more than wishful thinking, relates principally to the built
environment and human affairs. Alternative sources of energy, utilized with greater
efficiency, are at the heart of such hopes; even alternative ways of producing food or
obtaining water may be possible. For plants, however, there is no alternative but to
utilize sunlight and fix carbon and to draw water from the soil. (Under a given
range of environmental conditions, these processes are already remarkably efficient
by industrial standards.) Can we ‘‘technologize’’ our way out of the problems that
plants may encounter in capricious, stormier, hotter, drier, or more saline environ-
ments? Climate change will not alter the basic nature of the stresses that plants must
endure, but it will result in their occurrence in places where formerly their impact
was small, thus exposing species and vegetation types to more intense episodes of
stress than they are able to handle. The timescale on which the climate is changing is
too fast to wait for evolution to come up with solutions to the problems.
For a variety of reasons, the prospects for managing change seem better in
agriculture than in forests or in wild plant communities. It is possible to intervene
dramatically in the normal process of evolutionary change by genetic manipulation.
Extensive screening of random mutations in a target species such as
Arabidopsis
thaliana
can reveal genes that allow plants to survive rather simplified stress tests.
This is but the first of many steps, but eventually these will have their impact,
primarily on agricultural and industrial crops. There is a huge research effort in this
area and much optimism about what can be achieved. Much of it is done with little
reference to plant physiology or biochemistry and has a curiously empirical char-
acter. One can sense that there is impatience with plant physiology that has been too
slow in defining stress tolerance, and a belief that if a gene can be found that confers
tolerance, and it can be transferred to a species of interest, it is not of prime
v

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