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Key aspects of plant primary production at high elevation will be explained. A comparison of photosynthesis and respiration of alpine plants with their growth responses to temperature illustrates that growth constraints are largely related to tissue formation and development and not to the availability of photoassimilates (sugar). The build up of carbon reserves and the annual carbon acquisition per unit of available time (snow free period rather than a full year), illustrate that alpine productivity per week or month meets that of tropical forests. This is possibly the best evidence, that physiology hardly constrains typical alpine plants, hence the doubtful meaning of stress as discussed in the lesson on stress.
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