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Growing on the edge - Hydraulic architectures of mangroves
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recommended for
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experienced
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printed
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2008
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language
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english
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condition
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new
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pages
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133
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out of print
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yes
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author
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Nele Schmitz
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first print
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yes
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publisher
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DCL
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back
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description
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Ecological wood anatomy is a challenging field of study. It is a quest for environmental information to unravel how trees adapt their cellular make-up for survival under ambient and site-specific conditions. Sprouting ideas from the numerous, patiently observed and described wood samples give rise to carefully stated anatomy-environment relationships.
Always alert for new findings in tree physiology fitting these observations, the researcher may be lead to new insights in the trees' structure and functioning. In this dissertation, the hydraulic structure of mangrove trees will be addressed to gain knowledge about the way they successfully respond to the challenging environmental demands of the intertidal area. Growing on the edge between sea and land mangrove trees are faced with salt water and a stunning dynamism inherent to the tidal regime. Despite their ultimate position to study the regulation of the water transport under stress conditions, insight in the hydraulic structure of mangrove trees, its ecological plasticity and functional significance remains extremely scanty.
The first part of the thesis highlights the hydraulic architecture of Rhizophora mucronata and Avicennia marina in relation to the specific requirements of the regularly flooded and saline environment. The second part of the thesis focuses on the formation of wood by successive cambia in A. marina and its implications for the hydraulic architecture.
The study ends with a discussion on the functional understanding of the plasticity in hydraulic structure of mangrove trees, in view of their survival in an environment characterized by exceptional growth conditions, which are also to some extent unpredictable.
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