In our textbook, entitled Plant Physiological Ecology, we explicitly make the point that we consider plant physiological ecology the same as plant ecophysiology and plant environmental physiology. That is, the border is not clear, because we did (and do) not think there is one. I would not lump it with functional ecology, as "functional" is broader than "physiological. It could relate to, e.g.,anatomy or morphology as well.

Then again, perhaps I was exactly the person whose view you did NOT want to know, given you referred to our book. :-)

Dear Hans,

Thanks for your reply. It is great to get answer from the author of valuable textbook "plant physiological ecology"!. As you said you well explained in chapter 1 of your book both historical root of physiological ecology and the definition.

However, the unclear point for me is mainly the relation between plant functional ecology in one side and physiological ecology or ecophysiology in another side.

One point which i can see is interpretation in larger scale(community, ecosystem) of plant functional ecology studies(page 2 of Pugnaire and Valladares, 2007).

However, i think the definition of plant functional ecology and its border with another group (physiological ecology) is not very clear.

Warm regards

I've been called many names, but this is the first time some addresses me as "Lars". :-)

Dear Hans,

Oh, i apologize for the mistake.

I think the problem of using different terms in ecophysiology has started like my addresses in Hans and Lars!. Mistake was normal. However, they emphasized on their term and others continue using these terms!. You can imagine than once anyone use Lars than Hans Lambers in a paper and some researcher continue using Lars and cite that paper!...

Therefore, i am interested to know the main direction of plant functional ecology vs plant physiological ecology. These terms may be different or like both Lars and Hans are names of the same person!.

Warm regards

No offence taken. :-)

I would like to think that they are maybe very similar

Dear Mehdi,

First of all, I am pleased to see your such specific question on technical terminology in Ecological Sciences. For this, I am glad to see your fine interest to find out clarity.

However, I would like to give you some points on about Prof. Hans Lambers, who is an experienced and excellent Eco-physiologist known figure at a global level. I stood up in the field of ecology to read his books and ideas from his peer reviewed research articles.

Now I come to your question, Eco-physiology, Plant Functional Ecology and Plant Physiological Ecology.

If you look meaning at grass root level or at definition level it may express the same meaning at different angle of understanding. If you are taking this at specific level it has different meaning.

It is well known that ecology word is a suffix you may put anywhere with any words e.g. plant ecology, animal ecology, root ecology, nematode ecology etc..... But the meaning of ecology is the study of interactions between biotic and abiotic component means interaction between organism and abiotic component to understand that how and what extent an organism is interacting with the surroundings for food, survival and reproduction etc.

If I am putting word only functional Ecology instead of Plant Functional Ecology the meaning would be study of functional parameters of any organism (might be plant or animal) if I am putting Plant Functional Ecology then the specific meaning would be study of all functional attributes of a plant related with biotic and abiotic components.

Similarly, the little and slight differences at finer scale in between Plant Functional Ecology and Plant Physiological Ecology. If study encompasses for all kind of functional aspects at quantitative, qualitative and semi quantitative level be taken will come under Plant Functional Ecology when study encompasses more dynamically and more mechanistically for important functional parameters like growth, transpiration, photosynthesis, carbohydrate partitioning (these are the most important functional attributes of a plant) of an individual plant or at community level, will come under Plant Physiological Ecology.

In other words, I can say that more dynamic study on functional attributes of an individual or at community level may come in Plant Physiological Ecology and all kind of functional attributes (classic, mechanistic, evolutionary etc,) may come in the Plant Functional Ecology.

While in case of Plant Eco-physiology, study of structural and functional parameters of a plant with respect to ecological angle may come. These are the my personal views and ideas to giving you here on my experiences.

Dear Mehdi, if you need further elaboration and explanation, feel free to contact me([email protected]) or carry on with your debate on your question.

In last, I am very grateful to Prof. Lambers whose contributions are very significant indeed for Plant Eco-physiology and even to other branch of ecology.

Dear Anand,

Thanks for your comment. I also appreciate Prof. Hans Lambers for his contribution in guiding young researcher. One indicator of great scientist like Prof. Lambers is their contribution in helping other researcher behind of their great scientific publications.

As i found from your views, we can explain but we can not define these two groups separately. It would be nice if we also have idea of plant functional ecologist as well.

I believe that physiology includes both structure and function, accordingly anatomy & morphology should be part & parcel of physiology. Let us take few examples - Sunken stomata, Multiple epidermal layers, thick cuticle, trichomes around sunken stomata as adaptive features to modulate transpiration (especially under situations of water deficit caused due to drought, low/freezing temperature, high temperature etc.); aeranchyma in hydrophytes; variation in height depending on altitude or environmental conditions (in particular wind); variation in root length based on availability of water; Kranz anatomy to modulate efficient CO2 fixation;  CAM metabolism for conserving water; staomatal types in grasses vs. other plants; Alternative oxidase activity to maintain warmth or regulate ideal temperature - may be to attract insects for pollination; yellow ring on corolla at the narrow opening to attract aphids for pollination and disappearance of the yellow colour following pollination in case of Lantana; chloroplast-mitochondrial interactions (as referred in our latest paper - Shabnam et al. 2014 Photosynthesis Reserach); colour, shape/morphology and also chemical composition of several orchid flowers resembling insect pollinators; beautiful features exhibited by insectivorous plants; various types of plant-microbe interactions and there are innumerable number of other examples, that makes me believe that all the terms i.e. functional ecology, physiological ecology, ecophysiology, environmental physiology are synonymous.  I may be wrong.  Please educate me.