The bib I iography includes papers in alI fields of photosynthesis researc- from studies of model biochemical and biophysical systems of the photosynthesis mechanism to primary production studied so-cal led growth analysis. In addition to papers devoted entirely to photosynthesis, papers on other topics are included if they contain data on photosynthetic activity, photorespiration, chloroplast structure, chlorophyl I and carotenoid synthesis and destruction, etc., or if they contain valuable methodological information (measurement of selected environmental factors, leaf area, etc. ). In many branches it has been very difficult to define the I imits of interest for photosynthesis researchers. This problem has arisen e. g. in topics dealing with the transport of gases, where - in addition to the papers on C0 transfer- some papers on water vapour transfer are included, these 2 being of general application. On the other hand, many papers dealing with the anatomy and physiology of stomata have been omitted, if the aspect of carbon dioxide or water vapour exchange has not been discussed. To maximize the value of the bibliography the references are arranged alpha betically by author's names, and each volume is provided with three indexes. The authors' index to this volume contains alI names of authors, co-authors and editors. The subject index covers only primary items chosen according to their inter est for photosynthesis researchers. In this volume its preparation was based on the paper titles, key words and abstracts."

Carnivorous plants have fascinated botanists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, physiologists, developmental biologists, anatomists, horticulturalists, and the general public for centuries. Charles Darwin was the first scientist to demonstrate experimentally that some plants could actually attract, kill, digest, and absorb nutrients from insect prey; his book Insectivorous Plants (1875) remains a widely-cited classic. Since then, many movies and plays, short stories, novels, coffee-table picture books, and popular books on the cultivation of carnivorous plants have been produced. However, all of these widely read products depend on accurate scientific information, and most of them have repeated and recycled data from just three comprehensive, but now long out of date, scientific monographs. The field has evolved and changed dramatically in the nearly 30 years since the last of these books was published, and thousands of scientific papers on carnivorous plants have appeared in the academic journal literature. In response, Ellison and Adamec have assembled the world's leading experts to provide a truly modern synthesis. They examine every aspect of physiology, biochemistry, genomics, ecology, and evolution of these remarkable plants, culminating in a description of the serious threats they now face from over-collection, poaching, habitat loss, and climatic change which directly threaten their habitats and continued persistence in them.

The world's mediterranean-type climate regions (including areas within the Mediterranean, South Africa, Australia, California, and Chile) have long been of interest to biologists by virtue of their extraordinary biodiversity and the appearance of evolutionary convergence between these disparate regions. These regions contain many rare and endemic species. Their mild climate makes them appealing places to live and visit and this has resulted in numerous threats to the species and communities that occupy them. Threats include a wide range of factors such as habitat loss due to development and agriculture, disturbance, invasive species, and climate change. As a result, they continue to attract far more attention than their limited geographic area might suggest. This book provides a concise but comprehensive introduction to mediterranean-type ecosystems. It is an accessible text which provides an authoritative overview of the topic. As with other books in the Biology of Habitats Series, the emphasis in this book is on the organisms that dominate these regions although their management, conservation, and restoration are also considered.

Although they are among the most abundant of all living things and provide essential oxygen, food, and shelter to the animal kingdom, few books pay any attention to how and why plants evolved the wondrous diversity we see today. In this richly illustrated and clearly written book, Karl J. Niklas provides the first comprehensive synthesis of modern evolutionary biology as it relates to plants.
After presenting key evolutionary principles, Niklas recounts the saga of plant life from its origins to the radiation of the flowering plants. To investigate how living plants might have evolved, Niklas conducts a series of computer-generated "walks" on fitness "landscapes," arriving at hypothetical forms of plant life strikingly similar to those of today and the distant past. He concludes with an extended consideration of molecular biology and paleontology. An excellent overview for undergraduates, this book will also challenge graduate students and researchers.

In this first comprehensive treatment of plant biomechanics, Karl J. Niklas analyzes plant form and provides a far deeper understanding of how form is a response to basic physical laws. He examines the ways in which these laws constrain the organic expression of form, size, and growth in a variety of plant structures, and in plants as whole organisms, and he draws on the fossil record as well as on studies of extant species to present a genuinely evolutionary view of the response of plants to abiotic as well as biotic constraints. Well aware that some readers will need an introduction to basic biomechanics or to basic botany, Niklas provides both, as well as an extensive glossary, and he has included a number of original drawings and photographs to illustrate major structures and concepts. This volume emphasizes not only methods of biomechanical analysis but also the ways in which it allows one to ask, and answer, a host of interesting questions. As Niklas points out in the first chapter, From the archaic algae to the most derived multicellular terrestrial plants, from the spectral properties of light-harvesting pigments in chloroplasts to the stacking of leaves in the canopies of trees, the behavior of plants is in large part responsive to and intimately connected with the physical environment. In addition, plants tend to be exquisitely preserved in the fossil record, thereby giving us access to the past. Its biomechanical analyses of various types of plant cells, organs, and whole organisms, and its use of the earliest fossil records of plant life as well as sophisticated current studies of extant species, make this volume a unique and highly integrative contribution to studies of plant form, evolution, ecology, and systematics.

Plants have a very specific and efficient mechanism to obtain, translocate and store nutrients from the surrounding environment. The precise mechanism that helps a plant in nutrient translocation from root to shoot also, in the same way, transfers and stores toxic metals within their structure. Metal toxicity generally causes multiple direct or indirect effects on plants, affecting nearly all of their physiological functions. Plant tolerance to heavy metals depends largely on plant efficiency in uptake, translocation and sequestration of heavy metals in specific cell organelles or specialized tissues. The main purpose of this book is to present a holistic view of the recent advancement in the field of accumulation and remediation using plants, the green solar powered alternative to ameliorate heavy metal from the polluted environment. The key features of the book are related to metal transporters and metal accumulation mechanisms under heavy metal stress in plants, plant transcriptional regulation and responses under metal contamination, multiple toxic metal contaminations and its phytoremediation approaches etc. Based on the advancement of research in recent years, the information compiled in this book will bring an in-depth knowledge on the bioaccumulation of metals, their transportation in natural conditions or genetically modified plants and their strategy to cope with the toxicity to survive in the hostile environment.

In this work, the authors present topical research in the study of the morphology, evolutionary diversification and implications for the environments of flowers. The topics discussed in this compilation include the bioactive components from asteraceae flowers; the classification, phylogenetic status and uses as ornamental groundcover of the arachis species; understanding the role of pigments in flowers; flowers as sources of therapeutic molecules; the floral development of sauvagesia (ochnaceae) revealing different origins of presumed staminodes; pollen grain diameter, in vitro pollen germination and regression between grain diameter and in vitro pollen germination in pickerelweed (pontederia cordata L.) and the development of novel pollination techniques to overcome the effects of heteromorphic incompatibility and herkogamy in pickerelweed.

Mimicry is a classic example of adaptation through natural selection. The traditional focus of mimicry research has been on defence in animals, but there is now also a highly-developed and rapidly-growing body of research on floral mimicry in plants. This has coincided with a revolution in genomic tools, making it possible to explore which genetic and developmental processes underlie the sometimes astonishing changes that give rise to floral mimicry. Being literally rooted to one spot, plants have to cajole animals into acting as couriers for their pollen. Floral mimicry encompasses a set of evolutionary strategies whereby plants imitate the food sources, oviposition sites, or mating partners of animals in order to exploit them as pollinators. This first definitive book on floral mimicry discusses the functions of visual, olfactory, and tactile signals, integrating them into a broader theory of organismal mimicry that will help guide future research in the field. It addresses the fundamental question of whether the evolutionary and ecological principles that were developed for protective mimicry in animals can also be applied to floral mimicry in plants. The book also deals with the functions of floral rewardlessness, a condition which often serves as a precursor to the evolution of mimicry in plant lineages. The authors pay particular attention to the increasing body of research on chemical cues: their molecular basis, their role in cognitive misclassification of flowers by pollinators, and their implications for plant speciation. Comprehensive in scope and conceptual in focus, Floral Mimicry is primarily aimed at senior undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers in plant science and evolutionary biology.

Plant remains can preserve a critical part of history of life on Earth. While telling the fascinating evolutionary story of plants and vegetation across the last 500 million years, this book also crucially offers non-specialists a practical guide to studying, dealing with and interpreting plant fossils. It shows how various techniques can be used to reveal the secrets of plant fossils and how to identify common types, such as compressions and impressions. Incorporating the concepts of evolutionary floras, this second edition includes revised data on all main plant groups, the latest approaches to naming plant fossils using fossil-taxa and techniques such as tomography. With extensive illustrations of plant fossils and living plants, the book encourages readers to think of fossils as once-living organisms. It is written for students on introductory or intermediate courses in palaeobotany, palaeontology, plant evolutionary biology and plant science, and for amateurs interested in studying plant fossils.

Photosynthesis and the complex network within plants is becoming more important than ever, because of the earth's changing climate. In addition, the concepts can be used in other areas, and the science itself is useful in practical applications in many branches of science, including medicine, biology, biophysics, and chemistry. This original, groundbreaking work by two highly experienced and well-known scientists introduces a new and different approach to thinking about living organisms, what we can learn from them, and how we can use the concepts within their scientific makeup in practice. This book describes the principles of complex signaling networks enabling spatiotemporally-directed macroscopic processes by the coupling of systems leading to a bottom-up information transfer in photosynthetic organisms. Top-down messengers triggered by macroscopic actuators like sunlight, gravity, environment or stress lead to an activation of the gene regulation on the molecular level. Mainly the generation and monitoring, as well the role of reactive oxygen species in photosynthetic organisms as typical messengers in complex networks, are described. A theoretical approach according to the principle of synergetics is presented to model light absorption, electron transfer and membrane dynamics in plants. A special focus will be attended to nonlinear processes that form the basic principle for the accumulation of energy reservoirs and large forces enabling the dynamics of macroscopic devices. This volume is a must-have for any scientist, student, or engineer working with photosynthesis. The concepts herein are not available anywhere else, in any other format, and it is truly a groundbreaking work with sure to be long-lasting effects on the scientific community.

Plants face a daunting array of creatures that eat them, bore into them, and otherwise use virtually every plant part for food, shelter, or both. But although plants cannot flee from their attackers, they are far from defenseless. In addition to adaptations like thorns, which may be produced in response to attack, plants actively alter their chemistry and physiology in response to damage. For instance, young potato plant leaves being eaten by potato beetles respond by producing chemicals that inhibit beetle digestive enzymes.
Over the past fifteen years, research on these induced responses to herbivory has flourished, and here Richard Karban and Ian T. Baldwin present the first comprehensive evaluation and synthesis of this rapidly developing field. They provide state-of-the-discipline reviews and highlight areas where new research will be most productive. Their comprehensive overview will be welcomed by a wide variety of theoretical and applied researchers in ecology, evolutionary biology, plant biology, entomology, and agriculture.

The authors consider small and poorly-studied groups of plant calcium-dependent protein kinases that directly interact with calmodulin molecules. In plants, Ca2+ activates calmodulin-like domain kinases that do not require calmodulin or phospholipids. Thus these kinases differ from both CaMK and PKC families prevalent in mammalian cells.Next, various strategies of purification of recombinant proteins using CaM-based purification systems are reviewed and discussed. Protein purification is a crucial process in biotechnology industries and life science research laboratories. Amongst these purification strategies, affinity purification has garnered a lot of attention due to its higher speed and selectivity, leading to enhanced purity in fewer steps.In the closing chapter, the authors describe atomic-level structures of Ca2+-bound CaM (Ca2+/CaM) bound to the PSD-95 N-terminal domain. The N-lobe of CaM forms a cap that binds to the N-terminus of PSD-95 and sterically blocks the palmitoylation of PSD-95 at Cys3 and Cys5. The CaM C-lobe forms hydrophobic contacts with PSD-95 residue Y12, and the Y12E mutation abolishes Ca2+-induced postsynaptic release of PSD-95.

Abiotic stress drastically limits agricultural crop productivity worldwide. Climate change threatens the sustainable agriculture with its rapid and unpredictable effects, making it difficult for agriculturists and farmers to respond to the challenges cropping up from environmental stresses. In light of population growth and climate changes, investment in agriculture is the only way to avert wide scale food shortages. This challenge comes at a time when plant sciences are witnessing remarkable progress in understanding the fundamental processes of plant growth and development. Plant researchers have identified genes controlling different aspects of plant growth and development, but many challenges still exist in creating an apt infrastructure, access to bioinformatics and good crop results. Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes, Volume 2 focuses on many existing opportunities that can be applied methodically through conventional breeding, without touching upon the latest discoveries such as the power of genomics to applied breeding in plant biology. Written by a diverse faction of internationally famed scholars, this volume adds new horizons in the field of crop improvement, genetic engineering and abiotic stress tolerance. Comprehensive and lavishly illustrated, Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes, Volume 2 is a state-of-the-art guide to recent developments vis-a-vis various aspects of plant responses in molecular and biochemical ways to create strong yields and overall crop improvement.

Isoprenoids are important in primary and secondary metabolism. They have implications in a myriad of physiological processes notably in plants, microorganisms and parasites, and biological activities at the cellular, organism, and ecosystem levels. The importance of isoprenoids in various areas of the scientific world has spurred intense research worldwide. Also their role in "nutraceuticals" has stimulated scientific curiosity. Literature on isoprenoids is widely scattered in journals with quite differing readerships and geographic distribution. A comprehensive book on isoprenoids does not exist. Isoprenoid Synthesis in Plants and Microorganisms: New Concepts and Experimental Approaches fills this gap by presenting the latest and the most applicable information on isoprenoids. The most recent TERPNET conference serves as the backdrop and provides much of the inspiration for the topics covered in the book. Additional topics of interest are covered as well, making Isoprenoid Synthesis in Plants and Microorganisms: New Concepts and Experimental Approaches the most comprehensive review of isoprenoid synthesis to date.

Climate change is a complex phenomenon with a wide range of impacts on the environment. Biotic and abiotic stress are a result of climate change. Abiotic stress is caused by primary and secondary stresses which are an impediment to plant productivity. Prolonged exposure to these stresses results in altered metabolism and damage to biomolecules. Plants evolve defense mechanisms to withstand these stresses, e.g. synthesis of osmolytes, osmoprotectants, and antioxidants. Stress responsive genes and gene products including expressed proteins are implicated in conferring tolerance to the plant. This volume will provide the reader with a wide spectrum of information, including vital references. It also provides information as to how phytoconstituents, hormones and plant associated microbes help the plants to tolerate the stress. This volume also highlights the use of plant resources for ameliorating soil contaminants such as heavy metals. Dr. Parvaiz is Assistant professor in Botany at A.S. College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He has completed his post-graduation in Botany in 2000 from Jamia Hamdard New Delhi India. After his Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, India in 2007 he joined the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi. He has published more than 20 research papers in peer reviewed journals and 4 book chapters. He has also edited a volume which is in press with Studium Press Pvt. India Ltd., New Delhi, India. Dr. Parvaiz is actively engaged in studying the molecular and physio-biochemical responses of different plants (mulberry, pea, Indian mustard) under environmental stress. Prof. M.N.V. Prasad is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Hyderabad, India. He received B.Sc. (1973) and M.Sc. (1975) degrees from Andhra University, India, and the Ph.D. degree (1979) in botany from the University of Lucknow, India. Prasad had published 216 articles in peer reviewed journals and 82 book chapters and conference proceedings in the broad area of environmental botany and heavy metal stress in plants. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor for eight books. He is the recipient of Pitamber Pant national Environment Fellowship of 2007 awarded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

Abiotic and biotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and productivity. The phytohormones regulate key physiological events under normal and stressful conditions for plant development. Accumulative research efforts have discovered important roles of phytohormones and their interactions in regulation of plant adaptation to numerous stressors. Intensive molecular studies have elucidated various plant hormonal pathways; each of which consist of many signaling components that link a specific hormone perception to the regulation of downstream genes. Signal transduction pathways of auxin, abscisic acid, cytokinins, gibberellins and ethylene have been thoroughly investigated. More recently, emerging signaling pathways of brassinosteroids, jasmonates, salicylic acid and strigolactones offer an exciting gateway for understanding their multiple roles in plant physiological processes. At the molecular level, phytohormonal crosstalks can be antagonistic or synergistic or additive in actions. Additionally, the signal transduction component(s) of one hormonal pathway may interplay with the signaling component(s) of other hormonal pathway(s). Together these and other research findings have revolutionized the concept of phytohormonal studies in plants. Importantly, genetic engineering now enables plant biologists to manipulate the signaling pathways of plant hormones for development of crop varieties with improved yield and stress tolerance. This book, written by internationally recognized scholars from various countries, represents the state-of-the-art understanding of plant hormones' biology, signal transduction and implications. Aimed at a wide range of readers, including researchers, students, teachers and many others who have interests in this flourishing research field, every section is concluded with biotechnological strategies to modulate hormone contents or signal transduction pathways and crosstalk that enable us to develop crops in a sustainable manner. Given the important physiological implications of plant hormones in stressful environments, our book is finalized with chapters on phytohormonal crosstalks under abiotic and biotic stresses.

The global population is growing at an alarming rate and is anticipated to reach about 9.6 billion by the end of 2050. Addressing the problem of food scarcity for budding population vis-a-vis environmental changes is the main challenge plant biologists face in the contemporary era. Plant growth and productivity are scarce in many areas of the world due to a wide range of environmental stresses. The productive land is dwindling progressively by various natural and anthropogenic means that lead to enormous crop losses worldwide. Plants often experience these stresses and have the ability to withstand them. However, when the stress exceeds the normal tolerance level, plants accumulate organic osmolytes, osmoprotectants, cryoprotectants and antioxidant enzymes, which helps them tolerate these stresses and assist in their acclimatization towards the particular ambiance needed for maintaining their growth and development. Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants Under Changing Environment, Volume 1 discuss drought and temperature stresses and their mitigation through different means. This volume illuminates how plants that are bombarded by diverse and changing environmental stimuli, undergo appropriate physiological alterations that enable their survival. The information covered in the book is also useful in building apposite strategies to counter abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. Written by a diverse group of internationally renowned scholars, Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants Under Changing Environment, Volume 1 is a concise yet comprehensive resource that will be beneficial for the researchers, students, environmentalists and soil scientists of this field.

Abiotic stress has a detrimental impact on the living organisms in a specific environment and constitutes a major constraint to global agricultural production. The adverse environmental conditions that plants encounter during their life cycle not only disturb their metabolic reactions, but also hamper their growth and development on cellular and whole plant levels. These conditions are of great concern, particularly for those countries whose economies primarily rely on agriculture. Under abiotic stresses, plants amalgamate multiple external stress cues to bring about a coordinated response and establish mechanisms to mitigate such stresses by triggering a cascade of events leading to enhanced tolerance. Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants under Changing Environment, Volume 2 displays the ways by which plants utilize and integrate many common signals and subsequent pathways to cope with less favourable environmental conditions. The book also describes the use of contemporary tools for the improvement of plants under such stressed environments. Concise yet comprehensive, Physiological Mechanisms and Adaptation Strategies in Plants under Changing Environment, Volume 2 is an indispensable resource for researchers, students, environmentalists and many others in this burgeoning area of research.

This book includes papers from keynote lecture and oral presentations of Plant and Microbe Adaptations to Cold (PMAC) 2012, an international conference on winter hardiness of crop and pathogenic microbes. The PMAC has been started in 1997 in Japan as an interdisciplinary forum for scientists and extension people working in the field in plant pathology, plant physiology, microbiology, and crop breeding to increase our knowledge and improve our understanding of overwintering of crops, forages and grasses and solve the problems associated with losses due to freezing and heavy snow cover. Successive meetings have been held in Iceland (2000), Canada (2003), Italy (2006), and Norway (2009). PMAC2012 will be a special meeting with a focus on global climate change, food security and agriculture sustainability and the whole program will be arranged to reflect this theme. The topics covered by this proceedings includes, global warming in agricultural environment, plant adaptations to cold, microbial adaptations to cold, plant-microbe interaction under cold, and molecular breeding for winter hardiness. The researches range from molecular biology to ecology and breeding. Experts in the field will report cutting edge research and thoughtful strategies for sustainability.

Terricolous lichens, a habitat specialist group of lichens play a vital role in maintenance and ecological stability of soil crusts with reference to their physical stability, hydrology and growth of soil microflora. Terricolous Lichens in India, Volume 2: Morphotaxonomic Studies is the first lichenological study of this functional group. Based upon extensive field collections and the investigation of approximately 4,500 specimens preserved in various national and international herbariums, Terricolous Lichens in India: Volume 2: Morphotaxonomic Studies focuses on the morphotaxonomy of terricolous lichens in India. Divided into two chapters, the first chapter describes the basics of soil lichen curation from Indian habitats, presents the various morpho-anatomical and chemical techniques for taxonomic identification, and introduces the morpho-anatomical features of terricolous lichens. The second chapter focuses on the taxonomy of 312 terricolous lichen species and includes detailed identification keys and taxonomic descriptions. Written by experts in the field and complemented with over 50 color photoplates and maps, Terricolous Lichens in India: Volume 2: Morphotaxonomic Studies is a valuable resource for researchers and students interested in the field of lichenology.

Current trends in population growth hint that global food production is unlikely to gratify future demands under predicted climate change scenarios unless the rates of crop improvement are accelerated. Crop production faces numerous challenges, due to changing environmental conditions and evolving needs for new plant-derived materials. These challenges come at a time when the plant sciences are witnessing remarkable progress in understanding fundamental processes of plant growth and development. Drought, heat, cold and salinity are among the major abiotic stresses that often cause a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular alterations which adversely affect plant growth, development and productivity, consequently posing a serious challenge for sustainable food production in large parts of the world, particularly in emerging countries. This emphasizes the urgency of finding better ways to translate new advances in plant science into concrete successes in agricultural production. To overcome the pessimistic influence of abiotic stresses and to maintain the food security in the face of these challenges, new, improved and tolerant crop varieties, contemporary breeding techniques, and cavernous understanding of the mechanisms that counteract detrimental climate changes are indubitably needed to sustain the requisite food supply. In this context, Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes, Volume 1 provides a state-of-the-art guide to recent developments that aid in the understanding of plant responses to abiotic stresses and lead to new horizons vis-a-vis prime strategies for translating current research into applied solutions to create strong yields and overall crop improvement under such unfavourable environments. Written by a diverse group of internationally famed scholars, Improvement of Crops in the Era of Climatic Changes, Volume 1 is a brief yet all-inclusive resource that is immensely advantageous for researchers, students, environmentalists, soil scientists, professionals, and many others in the quest of advancement in this flourishing field of research.

Concentrates on symplasmic transport of small molecules, although the cell-to-cell transport of macromolecules will also be discussed. This book characterize the efficiency of symplasmic transport, mechanisms of molecule passage via plasmodesmata, and the external and internal factors that regulate plasmodesmatal conductivity. In this context, the book focused on the role of symplasmic domains in plant development, as well as the influence of environmental stresses on the plasmodesmata. Besides cell-to-cell symplasmic transport, the significance of long-distance symplasmic transport of solutes in phloem elements is also reviewed. Symplasmic Transport in Vascular Plants presents the mechanism of phloem transport, the processes of symplasmic loading and unloading, as well as the role of pre- and post-phloem transport, with special attention paid to symplasmic transport in wood. Finally, the relevance of the spread of both macromolecules and viruses, via plasmodesmata, is presented.

Recherches Chimiques sur la Vegetation was a seminal work in the development of the understanding of photosythesis and plant chemistry. The original publication, which was the first concise summation of the basics of plant nutrition, was a landmark in plant science. It was twice translated into German during the nineteenth century, but no English translation has been published. This translation will interest those in the plant, chemical, agricultural, and soil sciences, and the history of science, who find English more accessible than French or German and who wish to learn more about the early research on photosynthesis and plant science. A further note about the translation: This project is more than just a translation because it includes an extensive introduction as well as notes that provide explanations for archaic terminology and other background material. In the twentieth century, eminent photosynthesis researcher Eugene Rabinowitch described Recherches Chimiques sur la Vegetation as the first modern book on plant nutrition. Historian of chemistry Henry Leicester called the book a classic, noting that the first important generalization about biochemistry in the nineteenth century came from it. Plant physiologist P. E. Pilet stated that the book laid the foundations of a new science, phytochemistry. Soil scientist E. Walter Russell attributed to de Saussure the quantitative experimental method, which more than anything else made modern agricultural chemistry possible. Chemist Leonard K. Nash stated that de Saussure brought the studies of plant nutrition begun by Priestley, Ingen-Housz, and Senebier close to completion, finishing the basic experimental work and providing a convincing theoretical interpretation of the field, and also opened up new vistas of experiment and thought. In the two centuries since Recherches Chimiques sur la Vegetation was published, luminaries in various branches of science, including plant biology, chemistry, and soil science, have consistently praised it highly. In the nineteenth century, noted botanist Alphonse de Candolle and equally noted plant physiologist Julius von Sachs expressed great admiration for it. Although de Saussure's ideas were forgotten for a time, famed chemist Justus von Liebig, who invented artificial fertilizer, rediscovered them in the 1840s and brought them to the attention of the agricultural community, stressing their importance for increasing crop yields.