Trends and Advances in Researches on Plant Population Ecology

The trends and advances in all aspects of plant population ecology over past 20 years are summarized as follows: (1) Due to the introduction and progress of molecular biology and biotechnology, plant population physiological ecology not only moves forward to the studies of large scale, but also to the studies on levels of organ, cell and molecule. (2) Studies of plant population reproductive ecology are chiefly focused on the aspects of reproductive allocation and reproductive effort, currencies in reproductive allocation, reproductive value, life history evolution, reproductive timing and reproductive frequency, etc. (3) As to clonal plant ecology, the research of it mainly focuses on clonality, physiological integration, clonal growth patterns, clonal growth forms, hierarchical selection models and spatial mobility, etc. (4) Modular dynamics, relations between morphology and modular dynamics are much considered in plant modular ecology. (5) Population genetical structure, variance, differentiation, adaptation and its relations to environments, ecotypes and their genetic background, and polymorphism, etc. are chiefly researched in genetical ecology. (6) Foraging behaviour is the most focal aspect in study of plant behavioural ecology presently. Owing to this situation, resource allocation patterns, phenotypic plasticity, resource heterogeneity, foraging behaviour and evolution are being concentrated. (7) Plant population demography mainly touches on diagrammatic models and transition matrix models. (8) Plant population physiological ecology, reproductive ecology, genetical ecology and population dynamics are all related to some extent to molecular mechanisms, therefore are becoming the research front of plant population ecology.