Botany

Nanotechnology has shown great potential in all spheres of life. With the increasing pressure to meet the food demands of rapidly increasing population, thus, novel innovation and research are required in agriculture. The principles of nanotechnology can be implemented to meet the challenges faced by agricultural demands. Major challenges include the loss of nutrients in the soil and nutrient-deficient plants, which result in a lower crop yield and quality. Subsequently, consumption of such crops leads to malnourishment in humans, especially in underprivileged and rural populations. One convenient approach to tackle nutrient deficiency in plants is via the use of fertilizers; however, this method suffers from lower uptake efficiency in plants. Another approach to combat nutrient deficiency in humans is via the use of supplements and diet modifications; however, these approaches are less affordably viable in economically challenged communities and in rural areas. Therefore, the use of nano-fertilizers to combat this problem holds the greatest potential. Additionally, nanotechnology can be used to meet other challenges in agriculture including enhancing crop yield, protection from insect pests and animals, and by use of nano-pesticides and nano-biosensors to carry out the remediation of polluted soils. The future use of nanomaterials in soil ecosystems will be influenced by their capability to interact with soil constituents and the route of nanoparticles into the environment includes both natural and anthropogenic sources. The last decade has provided increasing research on the impact and use of nanoparticles in plants, animals, microbes, and soils, and yet these studies often lacked data involving the impact of nanoparticles on biotic and abiotic stress factors. This book provides significant recent research on the use of nano-fertilizers, which can have a major impact on components of an ecosystem. This work should provide a basis to further study these potential key areas in order to achieve sustainable and safe application of nanoparticles in agriculture.

Warm-temperate deciduous forests are "southern", mainly oak-dominated deciduous forests, as found over the warmer southern parts of the temperate deciduous forest regions of East Asia, Europe and eastern North America. Climatic analysis has shown that these forests extend from typical temperate climates to well into the warm-temperate zone, in areas where winters are a bit too cold for the 'zonal' evergreen broad-leaved forests normally expected in that climatic zone. This book is the first to recognize and describe these southern deciduous forests as an alternative to the evergreen forests of the warm-temperate zone. This warm-temperate zone will become more important under global warming, since it represents the contested transition between deciduous and evergreen forests and between tropical and temperate floristic elements. This book is dedicated to the memory of Tatsü Kira, the imaginative Japanese ecologist who first noticed and described this general zonation exception and who proposed the name warm-temperate deciduous forest.

This contributed volume provides a comprehensive, in-depth and subject-based reviews on the current status of active ingredients, sustainable use, biodiversity and conservation of certain endangered medicinal plants. The book also explores conventional and non-conventional biotechnological interventions for their biodiversity conservation. Medicinal plants have been used in worldwide as a major source of raw material for the traditional herbal healthcare practices as well as for drug discovery and development in pharmaceutical industry. The cumulative consequences of various human activities and environmental factors cause decline in the biodiversity of medicinal plants at an unprecedented rate worldwide. Thus, the overall understanding of ecology, species and genetic diversity along with assessment of the status of different threats and their impact on medicinal plants is crucial to sustain existing biodiversity, its utilization and conservation. All the latest advancements in the biotechnological approaches for the conservation research of endangered medicinal plants and the future perspectives have been described. This book provides comprehensive reviews spreading over about 25 chapters divided in three sections. The chapters of this book are written by recognized scientists in their respective fields which are useful to students, academicians, researchers, botanists, biotechnologists, policy makers, conservationists and industries interested in biodiversity conservation and medicinal plant research for the production of secondary metabolites.

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This edited book is collection of information on molecular interventions needed for climate-resilient forage crops. The main focus is to address the gap in the advanced scientific knowledge for the forage species. Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate, and even slight change in climatic factors such as temperature causes tremendous losses in yield potential. Forage crops are crucial in global food security and environmental sustainability and face several environmental challenges in field conditions. However, the research on forage crops is far-off compared to agricultural crops and causes a substantial gap in forage demand and productivity. Further, this gap is directly associated with animal health, reproduction, and productivity. Abiotic stresses mainly affect the plant's crucial processes, ultimately reducing the final yield. The problem of abiotic stresses is more frequent in forage crops as they are growing and cultivated in less productive soil and harsh conditions. This book discusses current aspects of crucial physiological, biochemical and molecular processes in forage crops, which are essential for forage crops improvement. The text's major focus is on the advanced technologies and approaches such as seed priming, bio-fortification, breeding, omics, transgenic and bioengineering of metabolic pathways in unique ways, which helps us develop innovative solutions for forage crops. This book covers all the crucial advance technologies, which help mitigate the abiotic stresses in forage crops. We believe that this book will initiate and introduce the readers to state-of-the-art developments and unique in this field of study. This book is of interest to teachers, researchers, climate change scientists, capacity builders, and policymakers. Also, the book serves as additional reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture, forestry, ecology, soil science, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists and policymakers will also find this a worthwhile read.

This book is a comprehensive collection of information on the role of plant phenolics in stress management in plants. The main focus of this book is to address the abiotic stress management in plants by plant phenolics under varied environments. Plant metabolic networks contribute significantly to the plasticity of plant metabolism, which is required to afford the sessile lifestyle of a land plant under changing environmental conditions. In natural systems, plants face a plethora of antagonists and thus possess a myriad of defenses and have evolved multiple defense mechanisms by which they can cope with various kinds of stresses for adaptation. Plant phenolics being ubiquitous have been extracted from every plant part such as roots, stem, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds and thus plays important role in adapting the plants to the varied environment. The book will provide readers with an up-to-date review of this dynamic field and sets the direction for future research. This book is of interest and use to a diverse range of topics of regulation of abiotic stress in plants. Bringing together work from leading international researchers, it is also a valuable reading material for plant and agricultural scientists, academics, researchers, students, and teachers wanting to gain insights into the role of plant phenolics in stress management in plants for sustainable agriculture.

Ohne sie könnten wir nicht überleben: Pflanzen liefern uns Sauerstoff zum Atmen, stabilisieren das Klima und sichern über landwirtschaftliche Produkte die Ernährung der Weltbevölkerung.Botanikerinnen und Botaniker gewinnen immer neue faszinierende Erkenntnisse über das ökologische Wechselspiel zwischen Flora und Fauna sowie die evolutionären Mechanismen, die zur farbenfrohen Blütenpracht führten.

ETHYLENE IN PLANT BIOLOGY Comprehensive resource detailing the role of ethylene in plant development regulation, gene regulation, root development, stress tolerance, and more Ethylene in Plant Biology presents ethylene research from leading laboratories around the globe to allow readers to gain strong foundational coverage of the topic and aid in further ethylene research as it pertains to plant biology. The work covers general ideas as well as more specific and technical knowledge, detailing the overall role of ethylene in plant biology as a gaseous plant hormone that has emerged as an important signaling molecule which regulates several steps of a plant's life cycle. The ideas covered in the work range from discovery of ethylene, to its wide roles in plant growth and development, all the way to niche topics such as stress acclimation. Written by highly qualified authors in fields directly related to plant biology and research, the work is divided into 20 chapters, with each chapter covering a specific facet of ethylene or the interaction between ethylene and plant health. Topics discussed in the text include: - Our current understanding of ethylene and fruit ripening, plus the role of ethylene in flower and fruit development - Ethylene implications in root development and crosstalk of ethylene with other phytohormones in plant development - Ethylene as a multitasking regulator of abscission processes and powerful coordinator of drought responses - Mechanisms for ethylene synthesis and homeostasis in plants, along with ethylene and phytohormone crosstalk in plant defense - Ethylene and metabolic reprogramming under abiotic stresses, as well as ethylene's applications in crop improvement For biologists, scientists, researchers, and policy makers in the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries, Ethylene in Plant Biology is a key resource to understand the state of the art in the field and establish a foundation of knowledge that can power future research efforts and practical applications.

Plant improvement has shifted its focus from yield, quality and disease resistance to factors that will enhance commercial export, such as early maturity, shelf life and better processing quality. Conventional plant breeding methods aiming at the improvement of a self-pollinating crop usually take 10-12 years to develop and release of the new variety. During the past 10 years, significant advances have been made and accelerated methods have been developed for precision breeding and early release of crop varieties. This book focuses on the accelerated breeding technologies that have been adopted for major oil crops. It summarizes concepts dealing with germplasm enhancement and development of improved varieties based on innovative methodologies that include doubled haploidy, marker assisted selection, marker assisted background selection, genetic mapping, genomic selection, high-throughput genotyping, high-throughput phenotyping, mutation breeding, reverse breeding, transgenic breeding, shuttle breeding, speed breeding, low cost high-throughput field phenotyping, etc. This edited volume is therefore an excellent reference on accelerated development of improved crop varieties.

This book is an elaborate account of the effects of abiotic stressors on cereals crops. It not only discusses the impacts of abiotic stress on the crops but also the physiological, biochemical, and molecular strategies applied in plant of cereal crops to alleviate the detrimental effects of abiotic stressors. The book also elaborates on various molecular response to the abiotic stress. It is a knowledgebase providing readers latest updates on development of high-performance diagnostics, stress induced responses, genomics, phenomics and metabolomics involved in abiotic stress tolerance of cereal food crops. The book is useful for plant scientists and research scholars. Post graduate students of agriculture sciences, plant physiology, botany and biochemistry also benefit from this compilation.

Presents research on the challenges and potential of fungal contribution in agriculture for food substantialityIncludes insights into use of microbial consortia for food processing of biobased productsBridges across topics related to prospects, investment, and intellectual and technical issues related to fungal contribution in agriculture

Discover the role of nanotechnology in promoting plant growth and protection through the management of microbial pathogens  In Nanotechnology in Plant Growth Promotion and Protection, distinguished researcher and author Dr. Avinash P. Ingle delivers a rigorous and insightful collection of some of the latest developments in nanotechnology particularly related to plant growth promotion and protection. The book focuses broadly on the role played by nanotechnology in growth promotion of plants and their protection through the management of different microbial pathogens.  You'll learn about a wide variety of topics, including the role of nanomaterials in sustainable agriculture, how nano-fertilizers behave as soil feed, and the dual role of nanoparticles in plant growth promotion and phytopathogen management. You'll also discover why nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the current agricultural landscape through the development of nano-based products, like plant growth promoters, nano-fertilizers, nano-pesticides, and nano-insecticides.  Find out why nano-based products promise to be a cost-effective, economically viable, and eco-friendly approach to tackling some of the most intractable problems in agriculture today.  You'll also benefit from the inclusion of:  - A thorough introduction to the prospects and impacts of using nanotechnology to promote the growth of plants and control plant diseases  - An exploration of the effects of titanium dioxide nanomaterials on plant growth and the emerging applications of zinc-based nanoparticles in plant growth promotion  - Practical discussions of nano-fertilizer in enhancing the production potentials of crops and the potential applications of nanotechnology in plant nutrition and protection for sustainable agriculture  - A concise treatment of nanotechnology in seed science and soil feed  - Toxicological concerns of nanomaterials used in agriculture  Perfect for undergraduate, graduate, and research students of nanotechnology, agriculture, plant science, plant physiology, and crops, Nanotechnology in Plant Growth Promotion and Protection will also earn a place in the libraries of professors and researchers in these areas, as well as regulators and policymakers. 

This book presents a comprehensive overview of plant stresses caused by salt, drought, extreme temperatures, oxygen and toxic compounds, which are responsible for huge losses in crop yields. It discusses the latest research on the impact of salinity and global environment changes, and examines the advances in the identification and characterization of the mechanisms that allow plants to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses. Further it presents our current understanding of metabolic fluxes and the various transporters that collectively open the possibility of applying in vitro technology and genetic engineering to improve stress tolerance. Exploring advanced methods that augment traditional plant tissue culture and breeding techniques toward the development of new crop varieties that can tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses to achieve sustainable food production, this book is a valuable resource for plant scientists and researchers.

In the study of the structure of substances in recent decades, phenomena in the higher dimension was discovered that was previously unknown. These include spontaneous zooming (scaling processes), discovery of crystals with the absence of translational symmetry in three-dimensional space, detection of the fractal nature of matter, hierarchical filling of space with polytopes of higher dimension, and the highest dimension of most molecules of chemical compounds. This forces research to expand the formulation of the question of constructing n-dimensional spaces, posed by David Hilbert in 1900, and to abandon the methods of considering the construction of spaces by geometric figures that do not take into account the accumulated discoveries in the physics of the structure of substances. There is a need for research that accounts for the new paradigm of the discrete world and provides a solution to Hilbert's 18th problem of constructing spaces of higher dimension using congruent figures. Normal Partitions and Hierarchical Fillings of N-Dimensional Spaces aims to consider the construction of spaces of various dimensions from two to any finite dimension n, taking into account the indicated conditions, including zooming in on shapes, properties of geometric figures of higher dimensions, which have no analogue in three-dimensional space. This book considers the conditions of existence of polytopes of higher dimension, clusters of chemical compounds as polytopes of the highest dimension, higher dimensions in the theory of heredity, the geometric structure of the product of polytopes, the products of polytopes on clusters and molecules, parallelohedron and stereohedron of Delaunay, parallelohedron of higher dimension and partition of n-dimensional spaces, hierarchical filling of n-dimensional spaces, joint normal partitions, and hierarchical fillings of n-dimensional spaces. In addition, it pays considerable attention to biological problems. This book is a valuable reference tool for practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in learning more about the latest research on normal partitions and hierarchical fillings of n-dimensional spaces.

This book focuses on the Permian time slice in the geological history of Gondwana, which includes Australia, India, South Africa, Antarctica and South America. Coal is an organic rock, the product of compressed and 'cooked' plants. The exact formation of coal via physicochemical reactions, burial and subsidence is the subject of numerous books. The vast thick coal deposits characterising Gondwana formed from special kind of trees termed the Glossopteris Flora. These trees shed their leaves in winter and with the rest of their remains decayed and through subsidence and burial formed the coal. Pollen preserved from these plant communities has been concentrated and isolated and is the focus of this book.The first plant communities as can be seen from the pollen graphs in this book were impoverished in species. The Permian era started with a very cold climate and as the climate warmed more and more diverse vegetation took hold. The emergence of different forms of pollen at certaintimes in the Permian is used as an indicator of climatic change. Furthermore, the predominance of algal spores in some samples and lack of representation by pollen of Glossopteris point to significant changes in the climate which led to the disappearance of their pollen and the accumulation of spores representing algal communities. These climate induced changes are noticed in their completed transformation after a long time span; small changes are evident during a lifetime of Earth's inhabitants.Today, in our lifetime, we can see and witness the drying of many lakes across the Earth and their total disappearance from maps of only 50 years ago is a testimony to a climatic change taking place. The time of a 'complete' change in the Permian is possible to calculate. However, to determine the duration and maximum change in the climate of the earth today is impossible due to the apparent acceleration of the process by industrial activities of our species.Chapter 4in the book deals with the special characteristics of the Permian coals of Gondwana and the special plant community which made them. The composition of these coals on a microscopic level shows them to be rich in hydrocarbons, more than other coals. The Permian coals of India and Australia generate 'heavy' oil which is retained within the coal matrix as bitumen and is a potential source of methane. This chapter demonstrates through a pilot study the potential for explosion in the Permian Gondwana coals through their propensity to spontaneous combustion and methane generation.