8th Plant Biomechanics International Conference

The greening of the planet Earth over the past 500 million years has involved vast and intricate patterns of changing phylogenetic and functional diversity. Biomechanics lies at the heart of this diversification, from the colonisation of the land and the appearance of stems, roots and leaves to the complex and diverse growth forms and ecosystems we see today. The first aim of this special session is to discuss recent findings on some of the main biomechanical innovations that have characterized land plant evolution culminating in today's complexity and biodiversity; the second objective is to invite both empirical and theoretical discussions on how “biomechanical innovations” that have proved such a success for plants, can be used as bioinspiration for technical applications and biomimetics research.

Chairs: Nick Rowe (FR), Miyo Morita (JP)

A Young scientists forum will be organised to encourage participation of PhD students, postdocs and young staff.

Session advisors: Kentaro Abe (JP), Naomi Nakayama (UK), Simon Poppinga (DE)