Plant communities are extremely important. Not only do humans benefit greatly but animals and their ecosystems depend on the growth and sustenance of plants.  Plant communities like any ecosystem require certain elements in order to grow and prosper. Global warming and other changes in the climate and environment threaten to upset the continuous cycle of plant communities. However since each community is different each individual plant species may behave differently when it comes to changes to in their environment.  Read more about Biomass to Biofuels Market Potential

Plant ecology is focused on behavior of plants and their ecosystems. Ecology would like to evolve and be able to accurately detail the adverse behavior and characteristics of various plant communities in their natural habitat. It is known that global warming and other environmental changes can have a negative effect on plant communities but it is still not exactly known what characteristics cause some plants to be more significantly affected than others. Two researchers by the name of Sean Hammone and Karl Niklas have conducted research on this topic and come up with an algorithm also referred to as a spatially explicit reiterative algorithm or SERA. This algorithm was designed to address a number of questions when it comes to changes in plant communities. It attempts to determine if various changes whether negative or positive are directly linked to certain characteristics of the plant. The ultimate goal is to be able to accurately detail the activity in individual plants and how they are affected by certain changes in the environment.

Plant communities like most ecosystems compete for certain elements in nature. They compete for features such as space to grow as well as one of the most important features in all plant communities, sunlight. It is a proven fact that some plant communities have species that out battle the other species when it comes to the vital items needed for growth. Other plants present in the plant communities for whatever reason are unable to battle as vigorously for their daily basic needs. The algorithm attempts to discover what characteristics or features make certain plants in the plant community compete harder than others in the same community. The SERA hopes to uncover traits or trends that may help researchers to understand more about the every changing plant communities and their ecosystems.  It is important to know which plants are affected because this can help to determine factors such as when plants will reach maturity and what plants in the plant communities are more negatively affected by changes in the environment.

SERA have had success and have shed light on how some individual plants within the plant communities compete for sunlight and space. Plant communities make up a vast majority of the ecosystems present in the world as stated before and although a lot is known about these systems much about plant communities remains unknown. It is widely believed that plants undergo diverse and complex processes just like many other system and that all of the behavior of the plant communities can be linked to a few behavioral traits.