|
Showing 1 - 5 of
5 matches in All Departments
Proceedings of the Information Symposium in the EEC Programme in
Climatology held in Mytilene, Greece, April 15-18, 1984
The present volume contains selected papers of the International
Symposium on Adaptations to Terrestrial Environment, held in Halki
diki, Greece from Sept 26th to Oct 2nd, 1982. The meeting was
designed to consider the means as weIl as the mechanisms whereby
organisms adapt to their environment. The papers presented dealt
with a large variety of species from insects up to and including
mamrnals. What became apparent during the course of the meeting was
the incredible variety of means that organisms use to survive in
their particular environmental niche. The ploys utilized are almost
as numerous as the number of species investi gated. This will
become clearly apparent in the accompanying manu scripts which are
published in this book. The Editors allowed the authors of the
accepted papers great leeway in terms of the thorough ness of their
contributions. Some of the presentations contain exclusively new
findings, whereas others extensively review the existing
literature. The Volume is divided into two parts: Invertebrates and
Verte brates. The first provides information on adaptations of
inverte brat es on environmental stresses (such as low er high
temperatures and water deficits) from the physiological and/or
biochemical points of view as weIl as behavioral responses
resulting from their life strategies and interactions with other
organisrns. In the second part papers selected deal with
vertebrates. Adaptations to special environmental factors such as
light and temperature are discussed as weIl as behavioral,
physiological and biochemical solutions to problems imposed."
Our knowledge of the functional characteristics of the plants of
mediterranean-cl imate regions has increased greatly in the past
decade. In recent times the possibility of large-scale util ization
of biomass for energy from these regions has been proposed. In
order to assess the feasibil ity of these proposals we must
consider the productive structure of these plant communities and
how they vary through time and space. This symposium was an attempt
to examine our recently acquired basic knowledge of the
environmental I imitations on the productivity of Mediterranean
plant communities in relation to the consequences of the possible
util ization of these communities for energy and chemicals.
Specifically in this book we examine the mechanisms by which plants
of mediterranean-cl imate regions maintain their productive
capacity under the prevail ing conditions of summer draught and
winter cold. We consider the characteristics of leaves, their
history, morphology and plasticity. Evergreen sclerophyll leaves
are common to the dominant plants of all mediterranean-cl imate
regions and thus they have significance in terms of enhancing
carbon gain and water-use efficiency as well as ensuring survival
under the prevail ing cl imatic conditions.
The present volume includes papers presented in the International
Symposium on Adaptations to Terrestrial Environment, held in
Halkidiki, Greece from September 26th to October 2nd, 1982, as well
as some invited ones from well known scientists working in the same
field. It seemed rather optimistic to deal just in the same volume
with such a variety of organisms (micro organisms to higher plants)
on the basis of the1r adaptive strategies for survival on land. It
would appear as the entire ecology ought to be included. It was a
challenge for us. We undertook this challenge hoping that the
output would not be unsuccessful. The Editors allowed the authors
of the accepted papers great leeway in terms of thoroughness of
their contributions. The quality of the papers included is high
while some of them had to be rewritten in order to include valuable
comments developed during the Symposium discussions. We have tried
to include many papers from Eastern Europe since generally, because
of the language problem, they do not get widely known. The Editors
wish to express their thankfulness to UNESCO for sponsoring the
Symposium in the frame of Man and Biosphere Program; to all
scientists who have contributed papers in this volume; and to Mrs.
A. Karamanli-Vlahopoulou for her patient and skillful typing of
part of the manuscript."
Our knowledge of the functional characteristics of the plants of
mediterranean-cl imate regions has increased greatly in the past
decade. In recent times the possibility of large-scale util ization
of biomass for energy from these regions has been proposed. In
order to assess the feasibil ity of these proposals we must
consider the productive structure of these plant communities and
how they vary through time and space. This symposium was an attempt
to examine our recently acquired basic knowledge of the
environmental I imitations on the productivity of Mediterranean
plant communities in relation to the consequences of the possible
util ization of these communities for energy and chemicals.
Specifically in this book we examine the mechanisms by which plants
of mediterranean-cl imate regions maintain their productive
capacity under the prevail ing conditions of summer draught and
winter cold. We consider the characteristics of leaves, their
history, morphology and plasticity. Evergreen sclerophyll leaves
are common to the dominant plants of all mediterranean-cl imate
regions and thus they have significance in terms of enhancing
carbon gain and water-use efficiency as well as ensuring survival
under the prevail ing cl imatic conditions.
|
|