Identifying Interdisciplinary Opportunities for a New Era of Plant Vascular Biology

Plant vascular biology has emerged as an important component in our understanding of plant physiology, ecology, evolution and ecosystem processes. Under a wide range of environmental conditions plants must maintain sufficient xylem and phloem transport capacity to replace water lost from leaves during photosynthesis and supply sugars to growing organs. Regulation of these complex processes takes place at many scales and can involve anatomical traits, cell processes, exchange of water between living cells and the xylem, and coordination of leaf and vascular characters. Vascular traits vary across environmental gradients and conditions in response to a wide variety of abiotic (e.g. water, light, CO₂ and temperature) and biotic factors (e.g. competition, disease agents), providing evidence of adaptive radiation. Furthermore, water transport failure can be a major driving factor in forest mortality and regeneration, providing a mechanistic link between plant physiological function and large scale ecological processes such as the evolution of biodiversity and climate change-induced ecosystem shifts. This conference seeks to bring together leaders and emerging scientists in the field of plant vascular biology to synthesize advances and suggest new directions. Speakers will present the results of original research with a focus on the interdisciplinary implications of their work. Topics will cover sub-cellular to ecosystem scales, spanning mechanistic to ecological and evolutionary perspectives. Through this conference we seek to identify gaps in our understanding, stimulate discourse and collaboration across scales, and encourage data synthesis in the field of plant vascular biology.