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262 S. Shabala<br />

18.2<br />

Diversity and Hierarchy of Plant Oscillators<br />

18.2.1<br />

Spatial and Temporary Hierarchy<br />

Oscillations in the plant kingdom cover an extremely broad range of periods<br />

(Fig. 18.1) and occur at various levels of plant structural organisation.<br />

Consequently, we are talking about spatial and temporal hierarchy of oscillations<br />

in plants.<br />

Spatial hierarchy implies that oscillations are present at different levels<br />

of plant structural organisation, from the molecular level to that for the<br />

whole plant or even of plant ecosystem (Aschoff 1981). The physiological<br />

significance of such spatial hierarchy is that the oscillating process in<br />

one “compartment” is optimised for a certain range of conditions and is<br />

not interfering with other “compartments”. A good example is stomata<br />

patchiness and oscillations in leaf photosynthesis (Sect. 18.2.2.2).<br />

ATP content<br />

Growth<br />

Enzymatic activity; protein synthesis<br />

Membrane transport<br />

Protoplasmic movement<br />

Leaf movement<br />

Membrane electric activity<br />

Conformational changes in molecules Seed germination<br />

10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 10-2 10-1 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 Period of oscillations, sec<br />

1 sec 1 min 1 h 1 d 1 mo nth 1 year<br />

Fig.18.1. Diversity and temporal hierarchy of plant oscillators

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