Who We Are
The Plant Environmental Physiology Group (PEPG) is a special interest group associated with the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) and the British Ecological Society (BES).
Our remit is to:
advance and promote the science and practice of plant environmental physiology
integrate the plant environmental physiology community and research opportunities within and outside the BES and SEB
support, train and liaise with young plant environmental physiologists.
The group annually runs an informal symposium for early career scientists and every two years organises a training course in field techniques aimed at post-docs and postgrads in plant environmental physiology. The PEPG is an excellent forum for meeting people working in similar fields and for socialising as well as general networking.
What is Plant Environmental Physiology
Plant environmental physiology is the study of short-term acclimation and long-term adaptation of plants to changing environmental conditions.
The PEPG traditional goal has been to integrate leaf and plant-level responses to biotic and abiotic stress under field and laboratory conditions. Increasingly, our focus has been either to set molecular physiology in an ecological context or to provide a basis for scaling root and shoot level responses to canopy, ecosystem and region in the context of climate change, whether for crops or natural vegetation.
What we do
The intensive five day long workshop includes a daily programme of lectures introducing the theory of techniques, with a demonstration of the equipment, followed by hands on sessions for participants to collect data.
Techniques include:
photosynthetic gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescencewater status and hydraulic conductance
canopy processes including stable isotopes, monitoring canopy development/Leaf Area Index, IR thermography and soil water/nutrient status
theory and practice of long-term monitoring under field conditions, including micrometeorology, eddy covariance, and remote sensing methodologies
The PEPG ECR is an annual event which allows early career scientists working in the field of plant environmental physiology to share their on-going research, and to learn and explore opportunities within their field. The main goal of this group is to promote and strengthen the plant environmental physiology community, supporting and training young plant environmental physiologists.
