Abstracts |
A sizeable number of scientists and funding organisations are of the opinion that
the relevance of plant physiological ecology as an important discipline has declined to the point
that it is no longer considered as one of the important topics of ecological research. Plant
physiological ecology is typically associated with the autecological plant research conducted
during the latter portion of the 20th century or, even worse, simply with gas exchange
measurements. However, taking a closer look, it becomes obvious that, by focusing on the
intermediate integration levels (individuals, populations), this discipline represents an
essential link between the high integration levels (communities, ecosystems, biosphere) and the
disciplines at the bottom of the complexity hierarchy (physiology, molecular biology). In this
paper we show that the principal question of all ongoing community and ecosystem level research -
What is the mechanistic background of vegetation composition, biodiversity structure and dynamics
and how is this linked to fluxes of matter at the community and hoc her levels of organisation? -
can only be answered if the mechanism of interactions between the relevant organisms are
understood. In consequence, the classical discipline of plant physiological ecology will
continuously develop into a truly interdisciplinary experimental ecology of interactions and its
importance will rather increase than diminish. Promising activities of this kind are already
underway. Scientists needed for this new direction should have a rather broad scientific
perspective, including knowledge and experience in fields outside of typical ecological research,
instead of being specialists for single ecophysiological aspects. (C) 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All
rights reserved. |