Plasticity in Plant Vascular Systems: Roles, Limits and Consequences

This conference will focus on the roles and limits of phenotypic plasticity and trait variation in plant vascular systems on plants, populations, and ecosystems at multiple scales.

Phenotypic plasticity expands a plant's developmental and physiological repertoires in response to environment. In plant vascular systems, plasticity can be evident at scales from gene expression and cell development up to whole-plant xylem and phloem function. The implications of this plasticity are far-reaching for wild nature as well as for the managed systems upon which humans depend, affecting plant survival, growth, architecture, and interactions. Over longer periods, it may affect fitness, and thus drive variation in biodiversity, population and ecosystem dynamics, and biogeochemical cycling. Over even longer periods, this plasticity may affect species' evolutionary trajectories.

Both climate change and human-caused changes in habitat availability heighten our need to better understand plant function. More knowledge about the roles and limits of plasticity will be critical to developing realistic models of vegetation response. This conference will provide scientists at all levels an opportunity to explore plant vascular plasticity with the goal of identifying critical gaps in our knowledge and using emergent discoveries to shape future research efforts.