Plant ecology is a section of ecology that studies the interdependencies and interactions between plant organisms , as well as between plants and their environment .
Content
Habitat
Given the specifics of the vital activity of plant organisms, plant ecology focuses on environmental factors such as water , light , temperature , wind , chemical composition of the soil , and relief .
Humidity
Higher land plants attached to a fixed substrate, to a greater extent than animals, depend on the level of humidity of the environment. In relation to moisture and methods of adaptation to the water regime, the following main groups of plants are distinguished, which significantly differ both in appearance and in internal structure:
- hydrophytes ,
- hygrophytes ,
- mesophytes ,
- xerophytes ,
- cryophytes
- psychrophytes .
Illumination
For plants, the basis of which is photosynthesis , the level of illumination is an essential factor in development. In relation to the amount of light required for full development, the following ecological groups of plant organisms are distinguished:
- heliophytes (photophilous),
- sciophytes (shade-loving),
- sciogeliophytes (shade-tolerant).
Photoperiodism
The ratio of light and dark time of the day in many respects affects the growth, development, vital activity and reproduction of plants. The following groups are distinguished by the type of photoperiodic reaction:
- plants of a short day, it takes 12 hours of daylight and less per day (hemp, cabbage, chrysanthemums, tobacco, rice) to go to flowering;
- long day plants; for flowering and further development, they need a continuous light period of more than 12 hours per day (wheat, flax, onions, potatoes, oats, carrots);
- photoperiodically neutral; the length of the photoperiod is indifferent and flowering occurs at any length of the day, except for a very short one (grapes, tomatoes, buckwheat, dandelions, phlox, etc.).