A comprehensive study on ecophysiological responses to stresses in plants

Abstract

Plants are subjected to a variety of environmental stresses, which reduces and limits agricultural crop productivity. Environmental stresses that affect plants are of two types: biotic and abiotic stresses. Abiotic stress includes temperature, ultraviolet radiation, salinity, floods, drought, heavy metals, etc., which results in the loss of important crop plants globally, while biotic stress refers to damage caused by insects, herbivores, nematodes, fungi, bacteria, or weeds. Stress (abiotic and biotic) factors reflect and specify the plant morphology and called as “stress” and have negative effect(s) on growth, development, quality, quantity and can reduce average plant productivity by 65 to 87%, depending on the plants and stage(s) and also give various permanent or temporary damage(s) according to length of exposed period, violence/density, developmental stage, age, etc. Researches have revealed that despite the advanced technology levels the fundamental basis of stress have not been understood comprehensively. Firstly taken response(s) has/have not yet fully understood and secondly any “resistance” or “tolerance level of a variety/species” because of their complex structure(s). But, this point is clear that with the help or assistance of “multi-disciplinary” approaches, it will be able to get promising result (s) in near future. This review focuses some of the ecophysiological responses of plants to biotic and abiotic stresses.