Abiotic stress effects on performance of horticultural crops

Abstract

The yield and quality of horticultural crops mainly depend on genotype, environmental conditions, and cultivation management. Abiotic stresses, such as adverse environmental conditions, can strongly reduce crop performance, with crop yield losses ranging from 50% to 70%. The most common abiotic stresses are represented by cold, heat, drought, flooding, salinity, nutrient deficiency, and high and low light intensities, including ultraviolet radiation. These abiotic stresses affect multiple physiological and biochemical processes in plants. The ability of plants to face these stresses depends on their adaptation aptitude, and tolerant plants may express different strategies to adapt to or avoid the negative effects of abiotic stresses. At the physiological level, photosynthetic activity and light-use efficiency of plants may be modulated to enhance tolerance against the stress. At the biochemical level, several antioxidant systems can be activated, and many enzymes may produce stress-related metabolites to help avoid cellular damage, including such compounds as proline, glycine betaine, amino acids, etc. This special issue gathers eight papers; three are reviews and five are research papers. Two reviews are focused on the application of appropriate agronomic strategies for counteracting the negative effects of abiotic stresses. The third review is based on ornamental plant production under drought stress conditions and the effect on their ornamental quality. The research papers report the effect of climate change on crop development, yield, and quality. Abiotic stresses have been proven to reduce crop performance and yield. Research studies are essential for understanding the key adaptation strategies of plants that can be exploited for improving the crop stress tolerance.