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Non-photosynthetic Responses to Light Quality

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Physiological Plant Ecology I

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology ((920,volume 12 / A))

Abstract

In nature, survival is dependent on the sensitivity with which an organism can perceive its environment. One environmental resource obviously of prime importance to plants is light, its optimum harvest by photosynthesis being essential for the survival of both the individual organism and the species. Photosynthetic optimisation has been rendered possible through the evolution of highly sensitive perception mechanisms by which many different aspects of the continuously variable and always complex radiation environment may be detected. The information gathered from the environment by these mechanisms allows the plant to adapt, or acclimate, to the light conditions by appropriately modulating its metabolism or development. The non-photosynthetic responses to light quality — namely, photomorphogenesis, phototropism and photoperiodism — which form the subject of this chapter are the physiological manifestations of the environmental perception mechanisms.

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Authors
  1. D. C. Morgan
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  2. Harry Smith
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Botanik II der Universität, Mittlerer Dallenbergweg 64, 8700, Würzburg, Germany

    O. L. Lange

  2. Department of Biology Division of Environmental Biology of the Laboratory of Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    P. S. Nobel

  3. Department of Environmental Biology Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Box 475, 2601, Canberra City, Australia

    C. B. Osmond

  4. Institut für Botanik und Mikrobiologie der Technischen Universität, Arcisstraße 21, 8000, München 2, Germany

    H. Ziegler

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Morgan, D.C., Smith, H. (1981). Non-photosynthetic Responses to Light Quality. In: Lange, O.L., Nobel, P.S., Osmond, C.B., Ziegler, H. (eds) Physiological Plant Ecology I. Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, vol 12 / A. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68090-8_5

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