Water Stress and Dynamics of Growth and Yield of Crop Plants

Abstract

Crop performance and yield are the results of genotypic expression as modulated by continuous interactions with the environment. Among the environmental factors, one of the most widely limiting for crop production on a global basis is water. A better understanding of how long-term growth and yield are affected by water stress should aid in improving irrigation efficiency and practices, in modifying plants for more efficient water use, and in developing effective dry-land agriculture. What we now know of such relationships is almost exclusively empirical, learned from thousands of irrigation trials conducted over many decades, the data of which have been summarized (Salter and Goode, 1967; Stanhill, 1973). A sounder basis should come from knowledge of the underlying physiology and crop ecology. Numerous short-term studies in the last decade have detailed a variety of physiological and metabolic changes in the plant caused by water stress (Hsiao, 1973; Boyer, 1975; Vieira da Silva, this volume Part 4:A). Many of these changes, such as the suppression of photosynthesis and protein synthesis, and the dramatic accumulation of the growth regulator abscisic acid (ABA), could have important consequences in terms of final crop yields. Yet very few studies have attempted to link the short-term changes caused by water stress at the subcellular and cellular level to crop performance in the field integrated over time and the whole organism or community. Water and Plant Life Water and Plant Life Look Inside Share Share this content on Facebook Share this content on Twitter Share this content on LinkedIn Other actions Export citations About this Book