The increase in global population, urbanization and industrialization is resulting in the conversion of cultivated land into wasteland. Providing food from these limited resources to an ever-increasing population is one of the biggest challenges that present agriculturalists and plant scientists are facing. Environmental stresses make this situation even graver. Plants on which mankind is directly or indirectly dependent exhibit various mechanisms for their survival. Adaptability of the plants to changing environment is a matter of concern for plant biologists trying to reach the goal of food security. Despite the induction of several tolerance mechanisms, sensitive plants often fail to withstand these environmental extremes. Using new technological approaches has become essential and imperative. Plant-Environment Interaction: Responses and Approaches to Mitigate Stress throws light on the changing environment and the sustainability of plants under these conditions. It contains the most up-to-date research and comprehensive detailed discussions in plant physiology, climate change, agronomy and forestry, sometimes from a molecular point of view, to convey in-depth understanding of the effects of environmental stress in plants, their responses to the environment, how to mitigate the negative effects and improve yield under stress. This edited volume is written by expert plant biologists from around the world, providing invaluable knowledge to graduate and undergraduate students in plant biochemistry, food chemistry, plant physiology, molecular biology, plant biotechnology, and environmental sciences. This book updates scientists and researchers with the very latest information and sustainable methods used for stress tolerance, which will also be of considerable interest to plant based companies and institutions concerned with the campaign of food security.

Agriculture is currently facing multi-faceted threats in the form of unpredictable weather variability, frequent droughts and scarcity of irrigation water, together with the degradation of soil resources and declining environmental health. These stresses result in the modification of plant physiology to impart greater resilience to changing abiotic and biotic environments, but only at the cost of declining plant productivity. In light of these facts, assessing the status of natural resource bases, and understanding the mechanisms of soil-plant-environment interactions so as to devise adaptation and mitigation approaches, represent great and imminent challenges for all of us. In this context, it is essential to understand the potential applications of modern tools, existing coping mechanisms and their integration, as this will allow us to develop suitable advanced mitigation strategies. From a broader perspective, the book deals with crop-environment interaction in the context of changing climatic conditions. To do so, it addresses four major aspects: Understanding the mechanism of carbon dynamics in the soil-plant-environment continuum; greenhouse gas fluxes in agricultural systems; and soil properties influenced by climate change and carbon sequestration processes. Mitigation and management of the photo-thermal environment to improve crop productivity; soil health under variable climate; reducing agro-ecosystem evapotranspiration losses through biophysical controls; and heat stress in field crops and its management. Studying the impact of climate change on biotic environments; insect-pest interactions; manifestations of disease; and adaptation strategies for island agro-ecosystems. Innovative approaches to assess stress impacts in crops, such as crop modeling, remote sensing, spectral stress indices etc. The book presents a collection of contributions from authoritative experts in their respective fields. Offering young researchers new perspectives and future research directions, it represents a valuable guide for graduate students and academics alike.

Advances in Climate Change and Global Warming Research and Application / 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Climate Change and Global Warming. The editors have built Advances in Climate Change and Global Warming Research and Application / 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Climate Change and Global Warming in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Advances in Climate Change and Global Warming Research and Application / 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

An accessible account of the ways in which the world's plant life affects the climate. It covers everything from tiny local microclimates created by plants to their effect on a global scale. If you’ve ever wondered how vegetation can create clouds, haze and rain, or how plants have an impact on the composition of greenhouse gases, then this book is required reading.

This book provides information about plant–environment studies and challenges for plant improvement to achieve food security. Plants face a wide range of environmental challenges, which are expected to become more intense as a result of global climate change. Plant–environment interactions play an important role in the functioning of ecosystems. There are habitats throughout the world that present challenges to crop plants, such as through a lack of water and excessive, or toxic, salts in the soil. Soil properties represent a strong selection pressure for plant diversity and influence the structure of plant communities and participate to the generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Plant communities selected by environment grow by modifying soil physical, chemical, and biological properties, with consequent effects on survival and growth of plants. The complexity of plant–environment interactions has recently been studied by developing a trait-based approach in which responses and effects of plants on environment were quantified and modeled. This fundamental research on plant–environment interaction in ecosystems is essential to transpose knowledges of functional ecology to environmental management. Plants have adapted to an incredible range of environment, and extensive researches on ecological and environmental plant physiology have provided mechanistic understanding of the survival, distribution, productivity, and abundance of plant species across the diverse climates of our planet. Ecophysiological techniques have greatly advanced our understanding of photosynthesis, respiration, plant water relations, and plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, from instantaneous to evolutionary timescales. Ecophysiological studies also provide the basis for scaling plant physiological processes from the tissue to the canopy, ecosystem, region, and to a large extent, the entire globe. Given the above, the author proposes to bring forth a comprehensive book, “New Frontiers in Plant-Environment Interactions”, highlighting the various emerging techniques and applications that are currently being used in plant–environment interaction research and its future prospects. The author is sure that this book caters the need of all those who are working or have interest in the above topic.

This book provides a snapshot on economic thinking about global change and provides a starting point for researchers for evaluating the economics of global change in the context of agriculture, forestry, and resource issues. It attempts to rectify the scarcity of economic analysis in global change.

The shift of weather patterns has affected the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases, including mycoses. Mycoses have remained neglected due to a lack of training and recognition within the medical community. Nonetheless, these diseases remain common worldwide while frequently being underdiagnosed. Climate change affects the distribution of fungal communities, provoking outbreaks in locations where these mycoses were absent or in low frequencies. Moreover, the reports of clinical cases related to new fungal pathogens have increased due to the description of new fungal species or due to the ability of some species to shift to new hosts. Thus, this book, The Impact of Climate Change on Fungal Diseases, is a contribution to the knowledge of a global environmental phenomenon and its relation to these diseases, and it serves as a guide for health professionals to dive deep into the repercussions of climate change and how they can implement measures for the prevention and control of fungal infections.

This latest Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will again form the standard reference for all those concerned with climate change and its consequences, including students, researchers and policy makers in environmental science, meteorology, climatology, biology, ecology, atmospheric chemistry and environmental policy.

This book describes the current environmental changes due to global warming in northern Eurasia, especially focusing on eastern Siberia. Spring flooding, ice-jam movements, and monitoring using remote sensing are included. Additionally, current reindeer herding of indigenous peoples in Siberia and related environmental changes such as waterlogging, rising temperatures, and vegetation changes are addressed. As a summary, the book also introduces readers to adaptation strategies at several governmental levels. The book primarily focuses on 1) introducing readers to global warming and human-nature dynamics in Siberia, with special emphasis on humidification of the region in the mid-2000s, and 2) describing social adaptation to the changing terrestrial ecosystem, with an emphasis on water environments. Adaptation strategies based on vulnerability assessments of environmental changes in northern Eurasia are crucial topics for intergovernmental organizations, such as the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Thus, the book offers a valuable resource not only for environmental researchers but also for several stakeholders regarding global environmental change.