Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Introduction to Plant Diversity

Introduction to Plant Diversity

From Water to Land

Light Acquisition

Light Acquisition

In order to produce glucose, plants need to capture sufficient light energy. Many modern plants have evolved leaves specialized for light acquisition. Leaves can be only millimeters in width or tens of meters wide, depending on the environment. Due to competition for sunlight, evolution has driven the evolution of increasingly larger leaves and taller plants, to avoid shading by their neighbors with contaminant elaboration of root architecture and mechanisms to transport water and nutrients.

Basic Plant Anatomy: Roots, Stems, and Leaves

Basic Plant Anatomy: Roots, Stems, and Leaves

The primary organs of vascular plants are roots, stems, and leaves, but these structures can be highly variable, adapted for the specific needs and environment of different plant species.

Regulation of Transpiration by Stomata

Regulation of Transpiration by Stomata

During photosynthesis, plants acquire the necessary carbon dioxide and release the produced oxygen back into the atmosphere. Openings in the epidermis of plant leaves is the site of this exchange of gasses. A single opening is called a stoma—derived from the Greek word for “mouth.” Stomata open and close in response to a variety of environmental cues.

Ecological Succession

Ecological Succession

Ecological succession is influenced by the processes of facilitation, inhibition, and toleration. Facilitation occurs when early successional species create more favorable ecological conditions for subsequent species, such as enhanced nutrient, water, or light availability. In contrast, inhibition happens when early successional species create unfavorable ecological conditions for potential successive species, such as limiting resource availability. In some cases, later successional species...

Key Elements for Plant Nutrition

Key Elements for Plant Nutrition

Like all living organisms, plants require organic and inorganic nutrients to survive, reproduce, grow and maintain homeostasis. To identify nutrients that are essential for plant functioning, researchers have leveraged a technique called hydroponics. In hydroponic culture systems, plants are grown—without soil—in water-based solutions containing nutrients. At least 17 nutrients have been identified as essential elements required by plants. Plants acquire these elements from the...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

A meta-analysis of carbon losses and gains from tropical moist forest degradation and regeneration.

Science advances·2026

Same author

Trophic cascades drive sustainability in the agricultural heritage rice-fish coculture system.

Current biology : CB·2026

Same author

Vegetation browning patterns under compound soil and atmospheric dryness in northern permafrost ecosystems.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Observation-constrained sensitivities of Arctic methane emissions to warming.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026

Same author

Rising tree mortality in France is associated with distinct seasonal climate anomalies.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

National pathways of land-use CO₂ emissions in the 21<sup>st</sup> century.

Nature communications·2026

Same journal

Epigenetic regulation of TaFIP phytocytokine clusters confers basal resistance via receptor kinase TaFIPR in wheat.

Nature plants·2026

Same journal

Ancient peptide-redox signalling underlies sperm motility in Marchantia.

Nature plants·2026

Same journal

The cytosolic arginine pool represses the progression of leaf senescence.

Nature plants·2026

Same journal

Pathogen-induced TaMP relocalization to chloroplasts promotes wheat susceptibility to rust.

Nature plants·2026

Same journal

The progression of leaf senescence is gated by the cytosolic arginine pool.

Nature plants·2026

Same journal

N-myristoylation-mediated shuttling of TaMP from plasma membrane to chloroplasts increases wheat susceptibility to rust fungi.

Nature plants·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

Organizing principles for vegetation dynamics.

Oskar Franklin^1,2, Sandy P Harrison³, Roderick Dewar^4,5

¹International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria. franklin@iiasa.ac.at.

|May 13, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Predicting vegetation dynamics in global environmental change requires integrating principles like natural selection and self-organization into ecological models. This approach enhances our understanding and predictive capacity for complex plant and ecosystem behaviors.

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: Leaf Trait Analysis for Climate and Ecology Reconstruction in Modern and Ancient Plant Communities

Author Spotlight: Leaf Trait Analysis for Climate and Ecology Reconstruction in Modern and Ancient Plant Communities

Published on: October 25, 2024

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

Published on: March 21, 2025

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 21, 2025

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Experimental Protocol for Manipulating Plant-induced Soil Heterogeneity

Published on: March 13, 2014

Author Spotlight: Leaf Trait Analysis for Climate and Ecology Reconstruction in Modern and Ancient Plant Communities

Author Spotlight: Leaf Trait Analysis for Climate and Ecology Reconstruction in Modern and Ancient Plant Communities

Published on: October 25, 2024

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

JenaTron - An Experimental Approach to Study the Effects of Plant History and Soil History on Grassland Ecosystem Functioning

Published on: March 21, 2025

Area of Science:

Ecology
Environmental Science
Theoretical Biology

Background:

Vegetation dynamics are crucial yet unpredictable drivers of global environmental change.
Current models often struggle to capture the complexity of plant and ecosystem behaviors across scales.

Purpose of the Study:

To explore methods for mastering complexity and improving predictions of vegetation dynamics.
To integrate principles of natural selection, self-organization, and entropy maximization into vegetation modeling.

Main Methods:

Applying natural selection-based optimality principles to predict plant responses (photosynthesis, carbon allocation).
Modeling individual plasticity to understand forest canopy self-organization.
Utilizing entropy maximization to predict community dynamics under environmental variation.

Main Results:

Natural selection models accurately predict photosynthetic and carbon allocation responses.
Individual plasticity predictably organizes forest canopies.
Models generate realistic plant communities and identify probable community dynamics outcomes.

Conclusions:

Integrating natural selection, self-organization, and entropy maximization offers a powerful framework for vegetation modeling.
A new generation of theoretically grounded models can improve predictions of vegetation responses to environmental change.