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Photosynthesis and Antioxidative Protection in Alpine Herbs

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Plants in Alpine Regions

Abstract

Alpine environments are found all over the world, from the south over the tropics to the north. Alpine herbs are defined here as higher plant species growing above the tree line up to and within the persisting snow line (nival life zone). The altitude of their occurrence varies strongly from around sea level in the far north and south to elevations above 4,000–5,000 m.a.s.l. in Africa and the Himalaya (Körner 2003). In the European Alps the alpine life zone starts at approximately 2,000 m elevation, depending on local microclimatic conditions. The mean annual air temperature in the Alps at this elevation is approximately 0°C (Friend and Woodward 1990) and on average the vegetation period is limited to 5 months per year.

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Abbreviations

APx:

Ascorbate peroxidase

Ca :

Concentration of CO2 outside the leaf

Cc :

Concentration of CO2 at the chloroplast level

Ci :

Concentration of CO2 inside the leaf

Car:

Carotenoid

Chl:

Chlorophyll

gCO2 :

Conductance for CO2

LHC:

Light harvesting complex

m.a.s.l.:

Meter above sea level

NPQ, qN:

Non-photochemical fluorescence quenching (for details see Maxwell and Johnson 2000)

PFD:

Photon flux density

PS:

Photosystem

PTOX:

Plastid terminal oxidase

qP:

Photochemical fluorescence quenching

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

SCO2/O2 :

Specificity factor of Rubisco for CO2 relative to O2

SOD:

Superoxide dismutase

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof Dr. J. Feierabend for critical reading of the manuscript. We acknowledge the Station Alpine du Lautaret for their work facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Ecologie Systématique et Evolution, University of Paris-Sud, Orsay, France

    Peter Streb & Gabriel Cornic

  2. CNRS, Orsay, France

    Peter Streb & Gabriel Cornic

  3. AgroParisTech, Paris, France

    Peter Streb & Gabriel Cornic

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  1. Peter Streb
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  2. Gabriel Cornic
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Correspondence to Peter Streb .

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  1. Fak. Naturwissenschaften, Inst. Botanik, Univ. Innsbruck, Sternwartestr. 15, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Cornelius Lütz

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Streb, P., Cornic, G. (2012). Photosynthesis and Antioxidative Protection in Alpine Herbs. In: Lütz, C. (eds) Plants in Alpine Regions. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-0136-0_7

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