AUSTRALIA—GERMANY WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY

The Shine Dome, 13-17 March 2006

Diversity of plant function in fluctuating environmental conditions — imaging of functional diversity of growth and transport as a basis for optimised resource-use efficiency in plants
by Prof Dr Ulrich Schurr, Institute Phytosphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich

Plant growth, transport and exchange processes with the environment are highly dynamic and are characterised by internal control processes and by strong interactions with the varying environment. The tight coupling of internal plant signalling and performance with the dynamics of the environment is the basis for the mechanism of resource-use efficiency in plants. Non-invasive methods will play an important role in elucidating the ways in which plants have optimised their dynamic structure-function relations of growth and transport in the context of a specific environment. This paper will describe advances in non-invasive methods to analyse variation of central processes in plants and their environment. Digital image sequence analysis, mapping of growth, transport and growth dynamics by high-field NMR imaging, positron emission tomography and SPECT will be presented as new pathways to insights into the diversity of the dynamic nature of plant-environment interaction.