Environmental Pollution: A Threat to Plant Life and Ecosystems

Environmental pollution, resulting from various human activities, has become a pressing global concern. The rapid pace of urbanization, mining, industrial revolution, and burning of fossil fuels/firewood, coupled with poor agricultural practices and improper waste disposal, have significantly altered the environment’s composition.

The Consequences of Environmental Pollution on Plant Life

Environmental pollution is categorized into air, water, land, noise, thermal, light, and plastic pollution. The escalating levels of environmental pollution have led to the accumulation of impurities in plants, which are essential for human needs such as food, clothing, and medicine. This, in turn, has a profound impact on plant life, affecting phenological events, structural patterns, physiological phenomena, biochemical status, and the cellular and molecular features of plants.

Exposure to environmental pollution results in acute or chronic injury, depending on the pollutant concentration, exposure duration, season, and plant species. The global increase in greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and ozone in the atmosphere poses a significant threat to biodiversity. This phenomenon has visible impacts on the life cycles and distribution of various plant species.

The Impact of Greenhouse Gases on Plant Life

Anthropogenic activities, particularly fossil-fuel combustion, are responsible for the steady increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, accelerating global heating. Changes in carbon dioxide concentrations, rainfall, and temperature have greatly influenced plant physiological and metabolic activities, including the formation of biologically active ingredients.

Plants interact with pollutants, leading to adverse ecological and economic outcomes. Therefore, it is essential to investigate plant responses to pollutants in terms of damage detection, adaptation, tolerance, and physiological and molecular responses.

Emerging Pollutants and Their Impact on Plant Adaptation

The complex interplay among emerging pollutants, including radioisotopes, cell-phone radiation, nanoparticles, nanocomposites, and heavy metals, and their impact on plant adaptation strategies requires further exploration. It is crucial to understand the process of pollutant uptake by plants and accumulation in the food chain, as well as the plant resistance capability against various environmental pollutants.

Identifying tolerance mechanisms in plants against pollutants can aid in developing eco-friendly technologies, which require molecular approaches to increase plant tolerance to pollutants, such as plant transformation and genetic modifications. The pollutant-induced overproduction of reactive oxygen species, causing DNA damage and apoptosis-related alterations, has been examined.

This book delves into the changes at the levels of transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, highlighting the need for a comprehensive understanding of the impact of environmental pollution on plant life and ecosystems.

Author: Azamal Husen

Publisher: Elsevier Science

Language: English

ISBN: 9780323999786, 9780323983099

Published: November 4, 2022