Twinkle Solanki

• Masters of Science in Biotechnology
• PhD Student at University of Helsinki

Evergreen plants in boreal biomes undergo seasonal hardening and dehardening adjusting their photosynthetic capacity and photoprotection; acclimating to seasonal changes in temperature and irradiance. Leaf epidermal ultraviolet (UV)-screening by flavonols responds to solar radiation, perceived in part through increased ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiatio...

Evergreen plants growing at high latitudes or high elevations may experience freezing events in their photosynthetic tissues. Freezing events can have physical and physiological effects on the leaves which alter leaf optical properties affecting remote and proximal sensing parameters. We froze leaves of six alpine plant species ( Soldanella alpina...

Snowmelt in alpine ecosystems brings ample water, and together with above‐freezing temperatures, initiates plant growth. In this scenario, rapid activation of photosynthesis is essential for a successful life‐history strategy. But, strong solar radiation in late spring enhances the risk of photodamage, particularly before photosynthesis is fully fu...

Leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf equivalent water thickness (EWT) are key leaf functional traits providing information for many applications including ecosystem functioning modeling and fire risk management. In this paper, we investigate two common conclusions generally made for LMA and EWT estimation based on leaf optical properties in the near-i...

Depending on the environment, sunlight can positively or negatively affect litter decomposition, through the ensemble of direct and indirect processes constituting photodegradation. Which of these processes predominate depends on the ecosystem studied and on the spectral composition of sunlight received. To examine the relevance of photodegradation...

At high northern latitudes in the boreal forest, winter precipitation in the form of snow has decreased and is predicted to continue to do so in the future (Jylhä et al., 2008). Reduced snow cover exposes plants to temperature fluctuations at may delay the spring recovery of photosynthesis. Such a change has potentially negative consequences for ne...

Assessment of hybrid seed genetic purity is one of the most important quality control parameters in hybrid seed production. With the objective of replacing the GOT with DNA based assays, Cytoplasmic Male Sterile (CMS), restorer and hybrid lines have been screened by means of microsatellite and Sequence Tagged Site (STS) markers. Cytoplasmic Male St...

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) have an enormous capacity to alter the phenotype, growth and confer the survival in plants. In semi-arid ecosystems, water and nutrients are the main constraints on forest tree productivity and survivability especially at seedling stage. It also affects functional diversity of root associated microflora....