Ram Swaroop Meena

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Akbar Hossain, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Shah Fahad, Disna Ratnasekera, Faraz Azeem, Allah Wasaya, Oksana Sytar, Narendra Kumar, Analía Llanes, Murat Erman, Mustafa Ceritoğlu, Huseyin Arslan, Doğan Arslan, Sajjad Hussain, Muhammad Mubeen, Muhammad Ikram, Ram Swaroop Meena, Hany Gharib, Ejaz Waraich, Wajid Nasim, Liyun Liu and Hirofumi Saneoka

Increasing ambient temperature is a major climatic factor that negatively affects plant growth and development, and causes significant losses in soybean crop yield worldwide. Thus, high temperatures (HT) result in less seed germination, which leads to pathogenic infection, and decreases the economic yield of soybean. In addition, the efficiency of photosynthesis and transpiration of plants are affected by high temperatures, which have negative impact on the physio-biochemical process in the plant system, finally deteriorate the yield and quality of the affected crop. However, plants have several mechanisms of specific cellular detection of HT stress that help in the transduction of signals, producing the activation of transcription factors and genes to counteract the harmful effects caused by the stressful condition. Among the contributors to help the plant in re-establishing cellular homeostasis are the applications of organic stimulants (antioxidants, osmoprotectants, and hormones), which enhance the productivity and quality of soybean against HT stress. In this chapter, we summarized the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of soybean plants at various growth stages under HT. Furthermore, it also depicts the mitigation strategies to overcome the adverse effects of HT on soybean using exogenous applications of bioregulators. These studies intend to increase the understanding of exogenous biochemical compounds that could reduce the adverse effects of HT on the growth, yield, and quality of soybean.

Part of the book: Plant Stress Physiology

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Akbar Hossain, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Celaleddin Barutçular, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Fatih Çiğ, Murat Erman, Oksana Sytar, Marian Brestic, Allah Wasaya, Tasmiya Jabeen, Maham Asif Bukhari, Muhammad Mubeen, Habib-ur-Rehman Athar, Faraz Azeem, Hakki Akdeniz, Ömer Konuşkan, Ferhat Kizilgeci, Muhammad Ikram, Sobhy Sorour, Wajid Nasim, Mabrouk Elsabagh, Muhammad Rizwan, Ram Swaroop Meena, Shah Fahad, Akihiro Ueda, Liyun Liu and Hirofumi Saneoka

The rapidly increasing human population is an alarming issue and would need more food production under changing climate. Abiotic stresses like heat stress and temperature fluctuation are becoming key issues to be addressed for boosting crop production. Maize growth and productivity are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Grain yield losses in maize from heat stress are expected to increase owing to higher temperatures during the growing season. This situation demands the development of maize hybrids tolerant to heat and drought stresses without compromising grain yield under stress conditions. The chapter aimed to assess the updates on the influence of high-temperature stress (HTS) on the physio-biochemical processes in plants and to draw an association between yield components and heat stress on maize. Moreover, exogenous applications of protectants, antioxidants, and signaling molecules induce HTS tolerance in maize plants and could help the plants cope with HTS by scavenging reactive oxygen species, upregulation of antioxidant enzymes, and protection of cellular membranes by the accrual of compatible osmolytes. It is expected that a better thought of the physiological basis of HTS tolerance in maize plants will help to develop HTS maize cultivars. Developing HTS-tolerant maize varieties may ensure crops production sustainability along with promoting food and feed security under changing climate.

Part of the book: Plant Stress Physiology

By Rajan Bhatt and Ram Swaroop Meena

Root architecture in soils is directly affecting crop yield potential, through influencing the moisture potential of soil and its balance components, as only transpiration share is useful for them. Soil moisture potential responsible for the soil moisture curves on the basis of differential energy states is quite important. Generally, a soil moisture flow rate is considered for its kinetic energy. Consequently, soil moisture energy state is defined by its equivalent potential energy, which is by virtue of its place in a force field which could assist to improve the water-use efficiency. Irrigation water losses significantly occur under the flood irrigation through evaporation, seepage, and drainage. While the soil moisture potential declines with help of the tensiometer, and significantly save the irrigation water. For evaluating the performance of any resource conservation technologies (RCT) in the region, estimation of the evapotranspiration (ET) is very important to analyze the effect of the RCT. It is also helpful in balancing the nutrient inflows in the plants through roots, which results to the improvement of land and water productivity. Hence, delineation of the soil moisture potentials and moisture balance components is important to improve the land as well as water productivity; it makes the livelihood security better in the water-stressed regions on the globe. This chapter deals with the methodological part of soil moisture potentials and moisture balance components, which is useful for the policymakers, modelers, scientists, students, and teachers engaged in the irrigation experiments under texturally divergent soils.

Part of the book: Soil Moisture Importance

By Aleš Kučera, Pavel Samec, Aleš Bajer, Keith Ronald Skene, Tomáš Vichta, Valerie Vranová, Ram Swaroop Meena and Rahul Datta

Forests play an irreplaceable role in linking the water cycle with the functions of soil. Soil water not only enhances the stability of forests, but also its run-off and evaporation affects the growth of plants in different ecosystems. The forest soil water balance is contextualized within the immediate and more global landscapes, in terms of relations of water to the soil environment and bedrock, participation in the local water cycle within a catchment basin and in the global cycle between ecosystems. Modifications by human civilization can have significant impacts, including erosion intensification, eutrophication, salinization, spreading of single-species plantations, and regime shifts. Forests regulate the movement of water in the soil environment by reducing the intensity of run-off. Such moderated run-off prevents the occurrence of flash floods, maintaining continuous availability of water for plant and human use. Participation of soil water in the cycling of elements in forests is modified by soil organic matter balance. The preservation of hydric functions in forest soils depends on prioritization of water balance restoration in every catchment basin enclosing the local element cycle. More fundamentally, the development of a synergistically interlinked system, centered around the soil-forest-water-civilization nexus, must become an urgent priority.

Part of the book: Soil Moisture Importance

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Akbar Hossain, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Ali Raza, Çetin Karademir, Emine Karademir, Abdul Rehman, Md Atikur Rahman, Rajesh Kumar Singhal, Analía Llanes, Muhammad Ali Raza, Muhammad Mubeen, Wajid Nasim, Celaleddin Barutçular, Ram Swaroop Meena and Hirofumi Saneoka

The rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (aCO2) and increasing temperature are the main reasons for climate change, which are significantly affecting crop production systems in this world. However, the elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration can improve the growth and development of crop plants by increasing photosynthetic rate (higher availability of photoassimilates). The combined effects of elevated CO2 (eCO2) and temperature on crop growth and carbon metabolism are not adequately recognized, while both eCO2 and temperature triggered noteworthy changes in crop production. Therefore, to increase crop yields, it is important to identify the physiological mechanisms and genetic traits of crop plants which play a vital role in stress tolerance under the prevailing conditions. The eCO2 and temperature stress effects on physiological aspects as well as biochemical profile to characterize genotypes that differ in their response to stress conditions. The aim of this review is directed the open-top cavities to regulate the properties like physiological, biochemical, and yield of crops under increasing aCO2, and temperature. Overall, the extent of the effect of eCO2 and temperature response to biochemical components and antioxidants remains unclear, and therefore further studies are required to promote an unperturbed production system.

Part of the book: Abiotic Stress in Plants