Biological outliers: essential elements to understand the causes and consequences of reductions in maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII in plants.

By studying Cistus albidus shrubs in their natural habitat, we show that biological outliers can help us to understand the causes and consequences of maximum photochemical efficiency decreases in plants, thus reinforcing the importance of integrating these often-neglected data into scientific practice. Outliers are individuals with exceptional traits that are often excluded of data analysis. However, this may result in very important mistakes not accurately capturing the true trajectory of the population, thereby limiting our understanding of a given biological process.