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Annuals and Perennials of warm deserts

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Physiological Ecology of North American Plant Communities

Abstract

Warm deserts have held a certain attraction and fascination for plant ecologists and physiologists for many decades. The reasons for this interest lie in the different types of plant assemblages, the large diversity of life forms, and the remarkable plant adaptations which have arisen in response to the environmental extremes of high air and soil temperatures, high solar radiation levels, low relative humidities, low precipitation levels, and extended drought periods. Substantial progress has been made in understanding the ecology of some of the dominant plant species, including the relationships between form and function, adaptation at morphological, physiological, and biochemical levels, and factors affecting distributional ranges.

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Authors
  1. James Ehleringer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University, USA

    Brian F. Chabot

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, USA

    Harold A. Mooney

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© 1985 Chapman and Hall

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Ehleringer, J. (1985). Annuals and Perennials of warm deserts. In: Chabot, B.F., Mooney, H.A. (eds) Physiological Ecology of North American Plant Communities. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4830-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4830-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8641-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-4830-3

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