This second edition of a well-received book focuses on rhythmic behaviour in plants, which regulates all developmental and adaptive responses and can thus be regarded as quintessential to life itself. The chapters provide a timely update on recent advances in this field and comprehensively summarize the current state of knowledge concerning the molecular and physiological mechanisms behind circadian and ultradian oscillations in plants, their physiological implications for growth and development and adaptive responses to a dynamic environment. Written by a diverse group of leading researchers, the book will spark the interest of readers from many branches of science: from physicists and chemists wishing to learn about the multi-faceted rhythms in plants, to biologists and ecologists involved in the state-of-the-art modelling of complex rhythmic phenomena.

Contenu

Ultradian Growth Oscillations in Organs: Physiological Signal or Noise?- Nutation in Plants.- Rhythmic Stem Extension Growth and Leaf Movements as Markers of Plant Behavior: How Endogenous and Environmental Signals Modulate the Root-Shoot Continuum.- Rhythmic leaf movements: physiological and molecular aspects.- Spatial and temporal responses in stomatal behaviour, photosynthesis and implications for water use efficiency.- The Pollen Tube Oscillator: Integrating Biophysics and Biochemistry Into Cellular Growth and Morphogenesis.- Oscillations in Plant Transpiration.- Photoperiodism: The Calendar of Plants.- Circadian Rhythms in Stomata: physiological and molecular aspects.- Time to network: the molecular blueprint of the circadian timing system in plants.- Noise-Induced Phenomena and Complex Rhythms: A Test Scenario for Plant Systems Biology.- Emergent oscillatory properties in modelling ion transport in guard cells.- Systems biology analysis of changes in potential across plasma membrane: physiological implications.- Rhythms, Clocks and Deterministic Chaos in Unicellular Organisms.