Salinity: Environment – Plants – Molecules

André Läuchli, Ulrich Lüttge0-306-48155-3, 1-4020-0492-3

This book addresses the responses of plants to salinity. Although salinity is a common environmental factor for marine organisms, for the majority of land plants high soil salinity is an environmental constraint that limits growth, productivity, and normal plant functions. Salinity is particularly widespread in arid/semiarid climates where crop production depends on irrigation. A comprehensive approach is taken in this book. After discussing salinity as an environmental soil factor and its global impact on ecosystems, plant responses are covered from the whole-plant level through metabolic changes to the underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms. In contrast to other books in this subject area, which focus on certain aspects of plant responses to salinity or are conference proceedings, this is the only comprehensive new book on this subject, written by experts in the field. The intended level of readership is graduate students and advanced researchers interested in environmental biology and specifically in the area of mechanisms of environment-plant interactions.