The function of plants in both natural and agricultural ecosystems is primarily constrained by suboptimal soil resource availability. Water and N deficit are major limitations to plant growth on earth and most terrestrial vegetation is supported by weathered soils with some combination of low P, low Ca, and Al toxicity. The influence of climate change on plant resource acquisition and utilization is important yet complex, and poorly understood, making it difficult to predict how future climate scenarios may impact plant function and the multiple ecosystem processes they influence.

A primary motivation for this plant symposium is to synthesize current understanding of plant and soil interactions in the context of climate change and from there explore the cascading effects on ecosystem processes, including impacts on agriculture, and food security.  The symposium will feature invited talks by 21 leading experts on global change impacts on plant resource interactions.  It will also include a short-talk session and two poster sessions.  Speakers for the short-talk session will be selected from those poster presenters who wish to be considered for oral presentations.  Postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students are particularly encouraged to give oral presentations. This symposium is structured with plenty of time for informal interaction. Speakers and participants will explore knowledge gaps, emerging ideas, and discuss future research needs.

The Plant Biology Symposium is sponsored by Penn State's Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Plant Biology, (formerly Plant Physiology) which provides educational and research experience for students interested in a variety of fields, including molecular, cell, and evolutionary biology; biochemistry, biophysics; genetics and functional genomics; physiology; and root biology.