Plants respond to environmental stresses such as drought, excessive salinity and low temperature

Seeds and plant fragments are blown onto trees at random through wind dispersal or placement by animals, but Tillandsia's success results from its ability to take advantage of its unique aerial niche. Hanging in the canopy, an ecosystem nutrient cycle is established in forests with epiphytes. During precipitation, there is stemflow (in which rain is caught by the leaves or branches and transferred along the trunk into the ground) and throughfall (which passes over leaves and branches, onto epiphytes, spilling excess water onto the ground) (Lowman and Rinker, 2004). The surface of Spanish moss is covered with tiny scales, allowing for the entrapment of water. When the tissues of Spanish moss plump up after a rain, the moss appears green; yet as the water is used, it turns gray. Average water absorbency for laboratory treated T. usneoides is approximately 800% of its dry weight (Van Stan, II, 2015). Spanish moss keeps the host tree's branches cool and moist due to its ability to absorb and hold water. Its canopy cover increases the leaching of Na+, Cl- , PO4 3- and SO4 2- from the epiphyte to tree roots. Additionally, the presence of T. usneoides enhances NH4+ soil concentrations but diminishes throughfall NO3- (Rosier, et al. 2015). Canopy soils develop when epiphytes start to decompose, and they contain fewer metals due to the adsorptive quality of the bromeliad

Plants are found everywhere on earth, up high on the ridge and down low in caves and caverns. The types of plants that live in these places depends on many factors. These factors are separated into two different categories, the biotic factors and the abiotic factors. Some of the biotic factors include, predation, competition, and habitat destruction. Plants with limited competition and large amounts of resources will be in a higher abundance than plants with limited resources and higher competition rates will be confined to areas and either out competed or will be the dominant species. Certain plants adapt to these factors and thrive and others don’t do as well. Some of the abiotic factors include, sunlight, water, temperature, and wind. These

In this study, rice will be exposed to osmotic stress condition, whereby it will show: a higher accumulation of proline and soluble sugars, reduced levels of MDA and minimized water loss rate compared to wild types of plant. Still, the stress-responsive gene OsHsfC1b will exhibit a significantly higher expression levels in rice than in transgenic plants under similar environmental conditions. Although OsHsfC1b has been evaluated purposely for its significance in drought

Cavitation has a decreasing impact on plants’ ability to transport water from the soil to their leaves. The studies report that plants in chaparral vegetation are more susceptible to cavitation during the wet season. The studies also found that the location (for example, temperature, precipitation rates or distance to the coast) of chaparral have impacts on cavitation resistance. In addition, the studies hypothesize and found that plants in chaparral habitats with greater precipitation have the tendency to become less resistant to cavitation, especially in the beginning of summer. This paper is relevant to chaparral because it explores the relationship between cavitation in chaparral vegetation and its effects on the overall

According to the AS2870 (2011), it is found that ‘the water uptake by trees is mainly related to 9 elements, including 1) tree species; 2) tree health; 3) stage of growth; 4) total leaf area; 5) height; 6) root, trunk and branch mass; 7) soil type; 8) climate; and 9) tree water suction

Many species of plants host microorganisms living inside the plant forming a mutually beneficial endosymbiosis. Bacteria or fungi that reside within plant tissue (roots, stems, and/or leaves) are referred to as endophytes. These endophyte communities may help to improve a plant’s fitness by promoting growth, protecting against disease, or facilitating nutrient acquisition. More specifically, endophytes within the plant community can help plants respond to stress that develops from biotic or abiotic influences like pests, heat, drought, saline, and soil conditions (Russell et al., 2003) Endophytes can help plants become better able to tolerate stress by allocating resources from one place to another (Rodriguez et al., 2009). Therefore,

In the course of this work , we have demonstrated the strong survival skills of the cacti in the Sonoran Desert. They take full advantage of the rainy seasons in the desert, and strengthen their ability of absorbing and storing water; they change their appearance to adapt to the arid environment by, for example, evolving the leaves into the spines; they adjust the photosynthesis by separating it into two steps. All these changes that the desert plants have made allow them to acclimatize to the harsh environmental conditions in the desert.

Robert Deal from Emory University is studying to learn about plants and their memory of stress. When plants face dry weather, their stomata shrink to reduce water loss. When a similar situation places the plants under stress again, the plant seems to recall this experience and recovers quicker. Robert Deal, who studies genetics and biochemistry, hopes to utilize this trait and pinpoint its gene. If he can locate and activate the genetic material associated with this memory, he believes he can speed up the process and cause plants to have the gene activated at all times, allowing the plants to withstand drier and warmer temperatures.

In this lab the effect of changing the pH of water that leaf disks were submerged into to find the effect on the ET50 time of plants. The hypothesis was that if the pH is closer to a normal water pH than the ET50 time will be the smallest. This lab was conducted to see what different variables change the amount of time needed for photosynthesis to occur(ET50) . This is important because of acid rain being present in the world with climate change and the effect it can have on plants which has large tolls. Previous studies have shown that acid rain and a change in pH can have damaging effects on plants. One study, showed that, acid rain destroyed the chloroplast of soybeans the location of photosynthesis in plants which disrupted photosynthesis

The plant recognizes the double stranded mRNA as foreign and breaks down the complex. This acts as a negative post-transcriptional control (Axtell). The four microRNAs used for this investigation were miR156, miR395, miR399 and miR398. The control, miR156, has no nutrient requirement and would be expected to show no change due to nutrient levels changing (Hsieh 2120-2132). miR399 is up-regulated during phosphate starvation and thus targets phosphorus uptake and metabolism (Hsieh 2120- 2132). miR398 is regulated when there is Copper/Zinc starvation, targeting the enzyme copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (Bouché 684– 686). This stress responsive miRNA has low levels of expression in both low sulfur and phosphorus environments (Bouché 684- 686). Lastly, miR395 depends on sulfur concentrations and targets mRNAs involved in sulfur metabolisms (Hsieh 2120-2132). These miRNAs should show different effects due to the nutrients

Climate change is a crucial issue which every living organism in this planet should cope with. Plants are in a disadvantaged position because they cannot move, like other organisms for avoiding the effects of the global warming. Thus, they should find ways to adapt to these changes, even when they are in very harsh environments, like in high altitude habitats. The effects of climate change could alter the functional traits and the phenology of the plants. This review article deals with the differences of the flowering time of Arabidopsis thaliana in low and high altitudes and also with the alteration of this due to the effects of global warming. As it is already discussed in the previous paragraphs, the flowering time of Arabidopsis thaliana

As is relevant plants can adapt quickly to stressful conditions. Oak trees create a deep taproot in search of water, along with a very broad lateral root system to help stabilize the tree in high winds. In pines, the needles have a long, slender shape reducing leaf area, which in turn reduces the amounts of water vapor escaping the leaf. Plants are able to strengthen their defenses by preserving memories of stress to enable stronger and more rapid responses if the same type of stress were to reoccur. Plant memory, in particular epigenetic memory, is speculated to complement genetic selection by providing means to adapt, increasing acclimation and even adaptations. (Crisp 2016) In the article reconsidering plant memory: Intersections between

As a ubiquitously occurring plant growth regulator, JA has been reported to contribute significantly in plant stress defense by playing role as a signal of developmentally or

All plants are subjected to a multitude of stresses throughout their life cycle. Depending on the species of plant and the source of the stress, the plant will respond in different ways. When a certain tolerance level is reached, the plant will eventually die. When the plants in question are crop plants, then a problem arises. The two major environmental factors that currently reduce plant productivity are drought and salinity (Serrano, 1999), and these stresses cause similar reactions in plants due to water stress. These environmental concerns affect plants more than is commonly thought. For example, disease and insect loss typically decrease crop yields by less than ten percent, but severe

Agriculture is one of the major sector becoming vulnerable to climate-change. Increased incidences of abiotic and biotic stresses are likely to cause serious negative impact on crop production. Abiotic stress is defined as the negative impact of non-living factors on the living organisms in a specific environment. The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the performance or individual organism in a significant way. This leads to decrease in the productivity by more than 50% in major crop plants which are growing word wide (Bray et al., 2000). Increased water stress, reduction in rainfall and increased air temperature are the major reasons for yield decline in wheat and paddy crops in many parts of South Asia. The average increase in temperature per decade is measured to be 0.28 ºC over land and 0.12 ºC over ocean and predicted that it is likely to rise further to a maximum of 2.5 ºC by 2050 and 5.8 ºC by 2100 (Jones et al., 1999; Grover et al., 2011). The principal abiotic stresses in India are drought or soil moisture stress, high temperatures, soil salinity/alkalinity, low pH and metal toxicity stresses that affect nearly two-thirds area forming parts of the arid and semi arid eco systems (Grover et al., 2011).