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 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 |
A general indication of
visitors’ traffic to this site is displayed below in terms of total numbers per
month for the first half of 2006:
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.
Any questions regarding the content of this Website should be directed to: curator
of the site.
This
site has been conceived by Dr. Abraham Blum.
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