This book brings together experts from different fields, who used a broad spectrum of methods to investigate the physiological and cellular adaptation of alpine plants from the tree line to the upper limits. Some articles link alpine plant physiology with physiological adaptations observed in polar plants. Tolerance against often high light intensities (including UV), cold or freezing temperatures, in addition to the need for fast tissue development, flowering, and propagation that is managed by alpine plants are to some extent underrepresented in recent research. This volume considers ice formation and winter conditions in alpine plants; the fate of cryophilic algae and microorganisms; cell structural adaptations; sexual reproduction in high altitudes; the physiology of photosynthesis, antioxidants, metabolites, carbon and nitrogen; and the influences of microclimate (temperatures at the plant level, heat tolerance), UV light, weather and ozone. Further information on life processes in alpine extreme environments may additionally yield new insights into the range of adaptation processes in lowland plants.
1. Physiological and ultrastructural changes in alpine plants exposed to high UV and to high ozon
2. Leaf cell organelle structures as modified by growth conditions and climate in alpine and polar plants
3. Ice formation and propagation in alpine plants
4. Dynamic of tissue heat tolerance and thermotolerance of PS II in alpine plants
5. Solar radiation and weather conditions of the High Alps
6. Photosynthesis and antioxidant protection in alpine herbs.
7.The accumulation of specific metabolites in plants in response to the alpine environment
8. Interaction of Carbon and Nitrogen metabolisms in alpine plants
9. From the flower to the seed: dynamics of sexual reproduction in alpine plants
10. Plant water relations in alpine winter
11. Cell structures and physiology of snow and ice algae
12. Bioclimate temperatures in mountain regions
13. Cold-adapted microorganisms in alpine soils
Cornelius Lutz is a Professor and head of the Institute of Physiology and Cell Physiology of Alpine Plants at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. His research focusses on adaption strategies of higher plants in alpine, Arctic and Antarctic regions.