Overview

There have recently been a number of advances in the subject of physiological plant ecology, but most of this work has concentrated on wild growth, where the success of the plant is judged by 'goals' considerably different from those of maximal yield in agriculture. This book presents a highly original approach that expands the 'functional biology' viewpoint to include crop plants. Cost-benefit trade offs in plant strategies of resource use are quantified, using a comprehensive, uniform set of four principles to construct objective functions or goals. Physiology, morphology, phenology and ecology are integrated in the approach, which is proposed for crop design as well as for ecological and evolutionary studies. With agriculture plants the issues are shown to be complicated by the crops' embodying genes for wild, competitive strategies that sacrifice yield, as also genes from mixed environments of diverse ancestral stocks. While the primary focus is on herbaceous annual crops, orchard and timber crops are also covered. Temperate and tropical environments are considered, as are wet and arid environments. The book therefore represents a major work for agricultural plant physiologists This book should be of interest to those interested in general biology, agriculture and plant physiology.

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9780709938194

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