Preface
The increasing concern of global climate change has caused an increasing interest in all aspects of carbon exchange of natural ecosystems. In a world of atmospheric increase of CO 2 , we are becoming
aware that natural ecosystems, especially the boreal forest, might be
major sinks for carbon, and may slow down the effects of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions on climate. Fortunately enough, following 30 years of intensive research in the ecophysiology of photosynthesis, we may be just about ready to actually model global photosynthesis to the necessary level of complexity for predictions of effects of
CO 2 change on global vegetation. For many parameters this seems to
be actually possible. However, it is also quite clear that important information is still missing, such as the uncertainty about adaptations
of plants to high CO 2 , and about the unknown balance between
respiratory and assimilatory processes at the canopy level. The present
volume will review the progress which has been made in understanding
photosynthesis in the past decades. It will attempt to develop a global
map of photosynthesis, which would not have been possible without
the recent history of intensive research on the ecophysiology of
photosynthesis, which started in the early 1950s, and was intensified
during the International Biological Program.
Research on photosynthesis of plants under field conditions is
closely connected to the name of Otto Ludwig Lange, who carried out
pioneer work on gas exchange under field conditions. O. L. Lange was
born in 1927 in Dortmund, Germany. He obtained his doctorate in
Gottingen with a thesis on plant heat resistance. Based on this work,
he was engaged by Otto Stocker at Darmstadt, the pioneer of measuring photosynthesis of plants in tropical and arid regions with the KOH
absorption method of those days. Otto Lange was strongly attracted
by this line of research and started an expedition to the Avdat runoff
farm of M. Evenari in Israel, using improved technology. It was this
expedition which stimulated the study of the ecophysiology of photosynthesis worldwide. It attracted physiologists as well as agriculturists
to study plant metabolism in the field. The main concept was that environmental conditions, especially the dryness of the air, have a strong
direct impact on plant performance and productivity, which has a
human dimension. Otto Lange continued this research with a second
The increasing concern of global climate change has caused an increasing interest in all aspects of carbon exchange of natural ecosystems. In a world of atmospheric increase of CO 2 , we are becoming
aware that natural ecosystems, especially the boreal forest, might be
major sinks for carbon, and may slow down the effects of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions on climate. Fortunately enough, following 30 years of intensive research in the ecophysiology of photosynthesis, we may be just about ready to actually model global photosynthesis to the necessary level of complexity for predictions of effects of
CO 2 change on global vegetation. For many parameters this seems to
be actually possible. However, it is also quite clear that important information is still missing, such as the uncertainty about adaptations
of plants to high CO 2 , and about the unknown balance between
respiratory and assimilatory processes at the canopy level. The present
volume will review the progress which has been made in understanding
photosynthesis in the past decades. It will attempt to develop a global
map of photosynthesis, which would not have been possible without
the recent history of intensive research on the ecophysiology of
photosynthesis, which started in the early 1950s, and was intensified
during the International Biological Program.
Research on photosynthesis of plants under field conditions is
closely connected to the name of Otto Ludwig Lange, who carried out
pioneer work on gas exchange under field conditions. O. L. Lange was
born in 1927 in Dortmund, Germany. He obtained his doctorate in
Gottingen with a thesis on plant heat resistance. Based on this work,
he was engaged by Otto Stocker at Darmstadt, the pioneer of measuring photosynthesis of plants in tropical and arid regions with the KOH
absorption method of those days. Otto Lange was strongly attracted
by this line of research and started an expedition to the Avdat runoff
farm of M. Evenari in Israel, using improved technology. It was this
expedition which stimulated the study of the ecophysiology of photosynthesis worldwide. It attracted physiologists as well as agriculturists
to study plant metabolism in the field. The main concept was that environmental conditions, especially the dryness of the air, have a strong
direct impact on plant performance and productivity, which has a
human dimension. Otto Lange continued this research with a second