Environmental pollution as a consequence of diverse human activities has become a global concern. Urbanization, mining, industrial revolution, burning of fossil fuels/firewood and poor agricultural practices, in addition to improper dumping of waste products, are largely responsible for the undesirable change in the environment composition. Environmental pollution is mainly classified as air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, light pollution, and plastic pollution. Nowadays, it has been realized that with the increasing environmental pollution, impurities may accumulate in plants, which are required for basic human uses such as for food, clothing, medicine, and so on. Environmental pollution has tremendous impacts on phenological events, structural patterns, physiological phenomena, biochemical status, and the cellular and molecular features of plants. Exposure to environmental pollution induces acute or chronic injury depending on the pollutant concentration, exposure duration, season and plant species. Moreover, the global rise of greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and ozone in the atmosphere is among the major threats to the biodiversity. They have also shown visible impacts on life cycles and distribution of various plant species. Anthropogenic activities, including the fossil-fuel combustion in particular, are responsible for steady increases in the atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations. This phenomenon accelerates the global heating. Studies have suggested that the changes in carbon dioxide concentrations, rainfall and temperature have greatly influenced the plant physiological and metabolic activities including the formation of biologically active ingredients. Taken together, plants interact with pollutants, and cause adverse ecological and economic outcomes. Therefore, plant response to pollutants requires more investigation in terms of damage detection, adaptation, tolerance, and the physiological and molecular responses.
The complex interplay among other emerging pollutants, namely, radioisotopes, cell-phone radiation, nanoparticles, nanocomposites, heavy metals etc. and their impact on plant adaptation strategies, and possibility to recover, mitigation, phytoremediation, etc., also needs to be explored. Further, it is necessary to elucidate better the process of the pollutant's uptake by plant and accumulation in the food chain, and the plant resistance capability against the various kinds of environmental pollutants. In this context, the identification of tolerance mechanisms in plants against pollutants can help in developing eco-friendly technologies, which requires molecular approaches to increase plant tolerance to pollutants, such as plant transformation and genetic modifications. Pollutant-induced overproduction of reactive oxygen species that cause DNA damage and apoptosis-related alterations, has also been examined. They also trigger changes at the levels of transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, which has been discussed in this book.
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Table of Contents
1. Plants and their unexpected response to environmental pollution: an overview 2. Effect of uv-b radiation on plants growth, active constituents and production 3. Effect of elevated CO2 on plants growth, active constituents and production 4. Effect of elevated O3 on plants growth, active constituents, and production 5. Plants response to SO2 or acid deposition 6. Fly ash toxicity, concerned issues and possible impacts on plant health and production 7. Effect of coal-smoke pollution on plants growth, metabolism and production 8. Effect of heavy metal pollution on plants: damage detection, repair, acclimation and adaptation response 9. Interaction of nanoparticles and nanocomposite with plant and environment 10. Toxic effects of essential metals on plants: from damage to adaptation responses 11. Phytoremediation response of plants: challenges and opportunities 12. Pesticide toxicity and their impact on plant growth, active constituents and productivity 13. Plant responses to water pollution 14. Plant response to industrial waste 15. Radioisotopes and their impact on plants 16. Effects of cell phone radiation on plants growth, active constituents and production 17. Effects of major munitions compounds on plant health and function 18. Aquatic macrophytes and trace elements: deleterious effects, biomarkers, adaptation mechanisms and potential new wave of phytoremediation processes 19. Production and role of plants secondary metabolites under various environmental pollution 20. Plant proteomics and environmental pollution 21. Genetic modification and genome engineering of plants for adverse environmental pollution
Authors
Azamal Husen Professor and Head of the Department of Biology, University of Gondar, Ethiopia and is a Foreign Delegate at Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita, Ethiopia.Azamal Husen served as Professor and Head of the Department of Biology, University of Gondar, Ethiopia and is a Foreign Delegate at Wolaita Sodo University, Wolaita, Ethiopia. Previously, he was a Visiting Faculty of the Forest Research Institute, and the Doon College of Agriculture and Forest at Dehra Dun, India. Husen's research and teaching experience of 20 years includes biogenic nanomaterial fabrication and application, plant responses to nanomaterials, plant adaptation to harsh environments at the physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels, herbal medicine, and clonal propagation for improvement of tree species. Dr Husen contributed to R&D projects of World Bank, ICAR, ICFRE, JBIC etc. He has >250 publications . He is Series Co-Editor of 'Plant Biology, Sustainability and Climate Change', Elsevier.
