Announcements

Springer Verlag just published the book “Canopy photosynthesis: from basics to applications” edited by Prof. Kouki Hikosaka (Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan), Prof. Ülo Niinemets (Estonian University of Life Sciences) and Prof. Niels Anten (Wageningen University, The Netherlands).

There is an immense variability in all environmental conditions that determine the rate of leaf photosynthesis. Particularly extensive is the variation in light availability, often more than 100 times between the upper and lower canopy leaves. Due to the major variations in environmental drivers, complex mathematical models are required to assess the whole canopy photosynthetic productivity. In the book, world-leading experts explain in various chapters how environmental conditions vary in plant canopies, how and to what extent individual leaves acclimate to the within-canopy environmental heterogeneity, and how mathematical models can be used to estimate the photosynthetic productivity of single leaves, shoots and canopies and how to scale the models to landscapes and biomes and how to verify these models using biometric measurements, flux measurements by eddy covariance and remote sensing techniques. The book further provides an overview of processes and models of plant competition and describes how competition affects plant productivity. This is the first comprehensive book on canopy photosynthesis that combines the knowledge of photosynthesis physiologists, forest and agricultural scientists, production and competition ecologists and remote sensing specialists, and thus provides an excellent scene for further advancement of the canopy science. The book is a suitable reading for professionals, students and young scientists who are willing to understand the main principles of canopy functioning, but also for senior scientists who want to freshen up their knowledge of and gain new insight into canopy science.

For more information: Prof. Ülo Niinemets, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of Estonian University of Life Sciences, Department of Plant Physiology, phone: (+372) 731 3140, e-mail: ylo.niinemets@emu.ee

Hikosaka, K., Niinemets, Ü., and Anten, NPR (eds.) Biology, Controls and Models of Tree Volatile Organic Compound Emissions, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 428 pp. http://www.springer.com/us/book/9789401772907