ecosystem-ecology
Ecosystem ecology is the integrated study of how living organisms and non-living environmental components—such as soil, water, nutrients, and climate—interact within ecosystems at large scales. For plant science, this framework is essential for understanding how plants both respond to and shape their environments, influencing nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and primary productivity. By linking plant biological diversity to ecosystem function and sustainability, this field reveals how plant communities drive broader ecological processes and how environmental changes may alter them.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-20
A comprehensive review synthesizes how plants respond to drought across every scale—from hormonal signals in individual cells to productivity across entire ecosystems—and reveals that the recovery phase after rainfall returns is critically understudied, even as climate change makes droughts more frequent and severe worldwide.
Abscisic acid (ABA) acts as the master coordinator of plant drought responses, simultaneously triggering stomatal closure to cut water loss, driving osmotic adjustments inside cells, and switching on stress-response genes.
Post-drought recovery is critically understudied relative to drought stress itself, yet recovery dynamics are essential for long-term plant performance and ecosystem resilience under increasing climate variability.
Soil microbial communities act as key mediators of plant-soil feedbacks, helping sustain ecosystem function during and after drought, while precipitation variability shapes vegetation productivity partly through its effects on biodiversity.