Introduction: Perspectives in Ecological Plant Physiology

Abstract

The objective of ecological plant physiology is to explain processes in plant ecology, such as plant performance, survival, and distribution, in physiological, biophysical, biochemical, and molecular terms. It is a relatively young discipline and we are aware of only a few basic textbooks that have been written (Larcher 1973, 1980a, b; Kreeb 1974; Bannister 1976; Etherington 1975, 1978). Physiological plant ecology was first reviewed as a separate discipline by Billings (1957), but the knowledge since gained in ecological-physiological studies has been rapidly integrated into and has strongly influenced the parent disciplines of plant physiology and ecology. Nearly a century ago the necessity of ecophysiological work was recognized by Schimper in the introduction to his classical text (1898) Pflanzengeographie auf physiologischer Grundlage and was expressed succinctly: „Nur wenn sie in engster Fuhlung mit der experimentellen Physiologie verbleibt, wird die Oekologie der Pflanzengeographie neue Bahnen eroffnen konnen, denn sie setzt eine genaue Kenntnis der Lebensbedingungen der Pflanzen voraus, welche nur das Experiment verschaffen kann.“ (In the original English translation: “the oecology of plant-distribution will succeed in opening new paths on condition only that it leans closely on experimental physiology, for it presupposes an accurate knowledge of the conditions of the life of plants which experiment alone can bestow.”) When introducing our perspectives as editors of four volumes dealing with physiological plant ecology in the New Series of the Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, one of our tasks should be to consider the extent to which Schimper’s prediction has been fulfilled.