caa a22 4500 386384797 CHVBK 20180307112055.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130s1989 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0263593300028765 doi S0263593300028765 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0263593300028765 Spicer Robert A. Department of Life Sciences, Goldsmiths' College, Creek Road, London SE8 3BU, U.K. Physiological characteristics of land plants in relation to environment through time [Elektronische Daten] [Robert A. Spicer] The spatially fixed sporophyte body of vascular land plants has to be adapted to both atmospheric and substrate environments. Potentially almost all stages in the life cycle of a land plant are fossilisable and the physiological adaptations to these environments are reflected in the morphology, anatomy, and chemistry of the plant. Although solutions to the plant's physiological problems have been refined through evolution, the basic responses to fundamental environmental parameters such as temperature, water availability, nutrient supply, gas exchange and light, evolved early in land plant history. These taxon-independent solutions can be used qualitatively, and sometimes quantitatively, to track changes in atmospheric and edaphic conditions throughout much of the Phanerozoic. Increase in body size and height in Middle and Late Devonian times was coupled with intense demand for light, nutrients and water supply and with elaborations of vascular systems, photosynthetic surfaces, organ abscission and ‘root' organisation. During the Carboniferous extreme adaptations to substrate waterlogging evolved. Mycorrhizal associations and "phi” layers in Triassic roots represent early aspects of modern root physiology. From the mid-Cretaceous, angiosperms exhibit leaf architectural characteristics which in modern plants relate qualitatively to moisture and light, and quantitatively to temperature, while vessel size and distribution in trunk wood is related to water stress and susceptibility to freezing. The relative proportion of plants utilising C3, CAM, and C4 photosynthetic pathways varies with environment. Isotopic analysis of plant fossils may demonstrate changing relative frequencies of photosynthetic pathways through time in relation to atmospheric composition and temperature. Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1989 C3 nationallicence C4 nationallicence CAM nationallicence climate nationallicence evolution nationallicence leaf physiognomy nationallicence root physiology nationallicence vascular architecture nationallicence Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland Foundation 80/3-4(1989), 321-329 0263-5933 80:3-4<321 1989 80 TRE https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263593300028765 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263593300028765 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Spicer Robert A. Department of Life Sciences, Goldsmiths' College, Creek Road, London SE8 3BU, U.K NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences Royal Society of Edinburgh Scotland Foundation 80/3-4(1989), 321-329 0263-5933 80:3-4<321 1989 80 TRE CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge