Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Plants have little wiggle room to survive drought, UCLA life scientists report
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/plants-have-little-wiggle-room-to-survive-drought-ucla-life-scientists-report[font face=Serif][font size=5]Plants have little wiggle room to survive drought, UCLA life scientists report[/font]
UCLA Newsroom | November 13, 2014
[font size=3]Plants all over the world are more sensitive to drought than many experts realized, according to a new study by scientists at UCLA and China’s Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. The research will improve predictions of which plant species will survive the increasingly intense droughts associated with global climate change.
…
“Plants have evolved this amazing ability to sync with their environment, but they are facing their limits,” said Megan Bartlett, a UCLA doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology and the study’s lead author.
Compiling and analyzing data for numerous species from various ecosystems around the world, Bartlett found that most species accumulate salts in their cell sap to fine-tune their tolerance to seasonal changes in rainfall. But that adjustment only provides a relatively narrow degree of additional drought tolerance.
Saltier cell sap gives plants the ability to continue to grow as soil dries during drought. Unlike animal cells, plant cells are enclosed by cell walls. To hold up the cell walls, plants depend on “turgor pressure” — the pressure produced by internal water pushing against the inside of the cell wall. As the cells dehydrate, the turgor pressure declines until the cell walls collapse, and the leaf becomes limp and wilted.
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.12374UCLA Newsroom | November 13, 2014
[font size=3]Plants all over the world are more sensitive to drought than many experts realized, according to a new study by scientists at UCLA and China’s Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. The research will improve predictions of which plant species will survive the increasingly intense droughts associated with global climate change.
…
“Plants have evolved this amazing ability to sync with their environment, but they are facing their limits,” said Megan Bartlett, a UCLA doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology and the study’s lead author.
Compiling and analyzing data for numerous species from various ecosystems around the world, Bartlett found that most species accumulate salts in their cell sap to fine-tune their tolerance to seasonal changes in rainfall. But that adjustment only provides a relatively narrow degree of additional drought tolerance.
Saltier cell sap gives plants the ability to continue to grow as soil dries during drought. Unlike animal cells, plant cells are enclosed by cell walls. To hold up the cell walls, plants depend on “turgor pressure” — the pressure produced by internal water pushing against the inside of the cell wall. As the cells dehydrate, the turgor pressure declines until the cell walls collapse, and the leaf becomes limp and wilted.
…[/font][/font]
