Abiotic Stresses and Their Effects on Plant Growth, Yield and Nutritional Quality of Agricultural Produce

Abstract

Abiotic stresses, like extreme temperature, drought, flood, salinity, and heavy metals, are some of the major factors that limit crop productivity and quality. Abiotic stresses considerably affect the growth, development, and productivity of crop plants, such adverse environmental conditions may reduce the performance of the crop with reduced yield from 50% to 70%. Emission of greenhouse gases from different sources is believed to be one of the factors responsible for the gradual increase in the global ambient temperature (global warming). Global warming has also changed the precipitation pattern and contributing to erratic drought/flood stress. Abiotic stresses, particularly drought and heat stress, during the vegetative and reproductive stage of growth adversely affect biomass, grain yield, and quality of the produce. A combination of abiotic stresses, for example, drought and heat, have much greater effects on the yield and quality of the produce. However, responses of plants to these stresses may vary across the species, as well as at different developmental stages. Scarcity of water (drought) and higher temperature induces the stress-associated metabolic responses, and stomatal closure significantly decreases the uptake of CO 2. As a result, the reduction equivalents (e.g. NADPH + H +) for CO 2 fixation via the Calvin cycle declines considerably. Not only the photosynthetic process but also the biosynthetic processes involved in proteins, lipids, and minerals metabolism are affectedby adaptive responses. As a consequence of these metabolic shifts, carbohydrate, protein, lipid, and mineral compositions are significantly affected by the abiotic stresses. Although the effects of abiotic stress on the yield of cereals and grain legumes are relatively well-understood, further research on the combined effects of abiotic stresses, abiotic and biotic stresses, and their effects on crop yield and nutritional quality of the produce needs to be undertaken. Molecular genetics of the stress responses and the tolerance mechanisms are likely to pave the way forward in developing crop plants that can withstand and give economic yield under the abiotic stresses.

Interaction Between Macro‐ and Micro-Nutrients in Plants

“…Interactions between macro-nutrients have been evident from the morphological, physiological, and agronomic studies; however, molecular bases of such biological interactions between macro-, micro-, and macro-micro-nutrients are being elucidated. Biological interactions have not only been detected between N and P, but P and micro-nutrients (Fe and Zn) have also been reported in plants ( Bouain et al, 2014b ; Briat et al, 2015 ), which would be very important to maximize crop yield, particularly on marginal lands under the changing climatic conditions ( Kumar, 2020 ). Studies involving various combinations of macro‐ and micro-nutrient stress, and integrative signaling molecules would provide the genetic-basis for multi-partite cross-talks in plants.…”

Late presentation of Two Rare Sacral Spine Tumors challenges of Diagnosis and Treatment in a Low Resource Setting

“…adversely affects biological activities in living organisms by disrupting water/cellular homeostasis. However, acclimatization and evolutionary (biochemical, physiological, genetic and epigenetic) changes enable the organisms to withstand recurrent stresses [18]. Therefore, the requirements are not only limited to increasing the yield but the quality of the product also utilizing modern tools, breeding and agronomic practices towards mitigating the effects of abiotic stresses.…”

Scientific journal «Plant and Soil Science» Font Size Make font size smaller Make font size default Make font size larger Language Select Language User You are logged in as... pikovska My Journals My Profile Log Out Article Tools Print this article Indexing metadata How to cite item Supplementary files Finding References Email this article Email the author About The Authors O. O. Komar orcid National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine Ukraine старший викладач кафедри

“…Абіотичні чинники, такі як екстремальна температура, посуха, повені, засолення та важкі метали, є одними з основних чинників, що обмежують продуктивність та якість врожаю (Kumar, 2020). Відомо, що поєднання абіотичних стресів впливають на появу та поширення біотичних стресів, таких як комахи-шкідники, патогени, бур'яни тощо (Ziska et al, 2010;Peters, 2014).…”