About Plantstress.com
Plant environmental (abiotic) stress constitutes a major limitation to
agricultural production and the farmer's livelihood. Crop production is hardly
ever free of environmental stress. The major plant environmental stresses of
contemporary economical importance worldwide are drought, cold (chilling and
freezing), heat, salinity, soil mineral deficiency and soil mineral toxicity.
While the "green revolution" indeed had an immense impact on agriculture
since the 1960's, its benefits were limited mainly to farming under non-stress
or moderately stressed conditions. For the farmers in stress prone agriculture
that seriously lack in water, soil fertility, nutrient supply, and favorable
weather, the "green revolution" had only a moderate impact and in
some region no impact at all. A major challenge in agriculture practice and
research today is how to cope with plant environmental stress in an economical
and an environmentally sustainable approach.
In recent years 'global
warming' and its effect on crop plant production has become a very 'hot'
issue. Solving this problem at the plant science level is almost exclusively a
question of coping with plant stress. International agricultural and
environmental research institutions now re-discover plant stress as a major
component of the effect of global warming on local and global food production.
Research to meet these challenges is complex as it involves learning in widely
different disciplines such as atmospheric sciences, soil science, plant
physiology, biochemistry, genetics, plant breeding, molecular biology and
agricultural engineering. The most successful cases of solution development by
research in this area involved close interdisciplinary collaboration and
integration. Such collaboration requires extensive exchange of knowledge and
ideas pertaining to plants under stress. Regretfully the contemporary trend in
agricultural and biological research is increased specialization and reduced
wide interdisciplinary collaboration.
Henceforth, the purpose of this web site is to
serve as a brokerage of information, a meeting place, a consultation facility
and a source for professional update on the most important issues of plant
environmental (abiotic) stress. While the site is dynamic and constantly
updated it also offers basic educational materials to newcomers into this area
who wish to use the site for learning. The most important goal of this web site
is to promote interaction among those interested in solving the problem of
plants under stress in agriculture, be it scientists, extension specialists,
business people, administrators, policy makers or farmers.
Contributed material highly pertaining to the
contents and purpose of this web site is welcomed. Please write Dr.
Abraham Blum the curator of the site. The decision to publish any
contributed information on this site lies with the curator whereas the final
responsibility for the submitted material is with the person submitting it.
Authors contributing articles to the ‘Stresses’
section
|
Author |
Affiliation |
Contributed Article |
|
Dr. Abraham Blum (Site curator) |
Scientist
Emeritus, The Volcani Center, Israel. curator@plantstress.com
|
Drought stress |
|
Dr. E.
Delhaize |
CSIRO Plant
Industry, GPO |
Aluminum toxicity resistance |
|
Dr.’s D.B. Fowler and A.E. Limin |
University of |
Cold stress |
|
Dr. A.E. Hall |
Botany & Plant Sciences Department, |
Heat stress |
|
Dr.
M.B. Jackson |
School of Biological Sciences, University
of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK and Plant Ecophysiology,
Faculty of Biology, University of Utrecht, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584 CA Utrecht,
The Netherlands. Email: mike.Jackson@bristol.ac.uk
or m.b.Jackson@bio.uu.nl |
Flooding stress |
|
Dr.’s
Surya Kant and
Uzi Kafkafi |
Faculty of Agriculture, The Hebrew |
Mineral deficiency stress |
|
Dr. Rana Munns |
CSIRO Division of Plant Industry, |
Salinity stress |
Example of
visitor traffic to this site for three months in 2011:
Below is a
review of Plantstress.com in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, May
2007:
(Rating:
Excellent)
Disclaimer and Copyright Notice
The
contributing authors (as per the above list) of the original material posted on
this site own the exclusive copyright to their work. All rights reserved.
Non-commercial and non-internet use of this material and only for individual
educational purpose is allowed.
All original graphics posted on this website are copyrighted by the
contributing authors or by the source of the graphic as posted.
This site is intended as an instructional resource. Any other use requires
written permission. Any questions regarding what is instructional use should be
directed to the curator
Do not duplicate or mirror this website.
Appropriate links to this website are welcomed and encouraged.
This
site has been conceived and is being maintained and curated by Dr. Abraham
Blum.
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