Licht-im-Terrarium: Literaturdatenbank
Licht-im-Terrarium: Literaturdatenbank |
|
 |
|
Smith, H. (1982). Light quality, photoperception, and plant strategy. Annual Review of Plant Physiology, 33, 481–518. Added by: Sarina (2008-12-16 20:27:07) |
| Resource type: Journal Article BibTeX citation key: Smith1982 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: Englisch = English Keywords: Mond = Moon, Pflanzen = Plants, Sonne = Sun, Spektrum = Spectrum Creators: Smith Collection: Annual Review of Plant Physiology |
Views: 9/1709 Views index: % Popularity index: 0.75% |
| Abstract |
|
The photoautotrophic higher plant is dependent on light for survival and yet must contend with a radiation environment which is continuously changing, both spatially and temporally. The simple fact that plants do survive and prosper, some even in habitats where the radiation environment appears distinctly unfavorable, indicates that evolution has provided sophisticated and sensitive mechanisms through which plants may acclimate to environmental fluctuations. During the last half-century or so, the study of what are now regarded as the classical plant photoresponses - photomorphogenesis, phototropism, and photoperiodism - has led to the generalization that higher plants possess two signal-transducing photoreceptors--- phytochrome, absorbing principally in the 600-800 nm waveband, and the blue-absorbing photoreceptor absorbing only in the 300-500 nm band. During more or less the same period, ecologists and environmental physiologists have elaborated the concepts of life strategy and acclimation. This article seeks to bring together, as far as seems possible, these two strands of developing knowledge and thereby to draw out the ecological relevance of photoperception. A subsidiary objective is to alleviate, to some small degree, the despair currently felt by those trying to make sense of the mechanisms of photoreceptor action, by reemphasizing the well-known, but often neglected, heuristic value of thinking about physiological phenomena in ecological terms. The scope is restricted mainly to responses to natural fluctuations in light quality, defined as the spectral distribution of photons. Light quality effects, however, cannot be discussed without distinguishing them from, and therefore describing, light quantity effects. With such a broad canvass, a huge literature clearly exists: e.g. the current awareness journal Current~4dvances in Plant Science listed 1875 articles as being relevant to photomorphogenesis and photoperiodism from January 1975 to July 1981--approximately 24 per month! The recent upsurge of interest in light quality effects in the natural environment was clearly demonstrated by the number and variety of papers presented at the international symposium held last year entitled "Plants and the Daylight Spectrum" (114). Specific aspects have been reviewed recently in detail (see footnotes to section headings for references), and therefore a selective approach has been used here in the hope of achieving a useful synthesis. In order to keep the coverage within a reasonable size, consideration of light quality effects on photosynthesis has been arbitrarily excluded.
Added by: Sarina |