Background Below-ground bud banks have experienced much recent interest due to
discoveries that they (1) account for the majority of seasonal population renewal in many …

The measurement of fitness is critical to biological research. Although the determination of
fitness for some organisms may be relatively straightforward under controlled conditions, it is …

Clonal growth of plants is attained by a number of morphologically different organs (eg
stolons, rhizomes, and roots), which are not functionally equivalent. Consequently, these …

A longstanding research divide exists in plant ecology: either focusing on plant clonality,
with no ambition to address nonclonal plants, or focusing on all plants, ignoring that many …

By mainly focusing on leaves and roots, functional ecology has been omitting an important
dimension of plant form and function. Horizontal spacers (rooting stems and roots with …

Soil moisture shapes ecological patterns and processes, but it is difficult to continuously
measure soil moisture variability across the landscape. To overcome these limitations, soil …

Most plants are clonal ie able to laterally propagate by producing new genetically identical
ramets connected by specialized clonal organs. Clonality determines ramet aggregation …

Plants with clonal growth can produce multiple potentially independent units, termed ramets.
Clonal growth can have important ecological and evolutionary consequences, such as by …

In climate change ecology, simplistic research approaches may yield unrealistically
simplistic answers to often more complicated problems. In particular, the complexity of …

Disturbance is an omnipresent selective factor that shapes plant strategies. While annual
species that rely on rapid generative reproduction dominate in habitats frequently affected …