Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
mechanisms of plant salinity tolerance in recent years. However, the present knowledge
is not easily applied in the agronomy research under field environments. In this review,
we simplified the physiological adaptive mechanisms in plants grown in saline soil and
put forward a practical procedure for discerning physiological status and responses. In
our opinion, this procedure consists of two steps. First, negative effects of salt stress are
evaluated by the changes in biomass, crop yield and photosynthesis. Second, the
underlying reasons are analyzed from osmotic regulation, antioxidant response and ion
homeostasis. Photosynthesis is a good indicator of the harmful effects of saline soil on
plants because of its close relation with crop yield and high sensitivity to environmental
stress. Particularly, chlorophyll a fluorescence transient has been accepted as a reliable,
sensitive and convenient tool in photosynthesis research in recent years, and it can
facilitate and enrich photosynthetic research under field environments.
Keywords
: Photosynthesis, oxidative stress, osmotic stress, ion homeostasis, ecological
engineering
A
BBREVIATIONS
ABA
abscisic acid;
AsA
ascorbate;
APX
ascorbate peroxidase;
CAT
catalase;
DHAR
dehydroascorbate reductase;
GPXs
Glutathione peroxidases;
GR
glutathione reductase;
GSH
glutathione;
H
2
O
2
hydrogen peroxide;
MDA
malondialdehyde;
MDAR
monoascorbate reductase;
O
2
.-
superoxide anion radical;
-OH
hydroxyl radical;
PSI
photosystem I;
PSII
photosystem II;
ROS
reactive oxygen species;
SOD
superoxide dismutase
I
NTRODUCTION
Human beings have stridden into the 21st century, and challenges concomitant with
opportunities turn up in front of us. The most important challenges are how to supply enough
food for the growing population, how to reduce the environmental pollution along with the
rapid growth of industrial production, and how to alleviate the negative effects of global
change. In response to these challenges, the concept of sustainable development was brought
forward, and so far, great efforts have been made under the support of big projects such as
Arabidopsis
Genome Plan, FACE Project, Rice Genome Project and so on (Ausubel and
