Plant Adaptation Strategies in Changing Environment

This book addresses the crucial aspects of plant adaptation strategies in higher as well as lower plant groups. Stress induced by changing environmental conditions disrupts or alter various physiological and metabolic processes in organisms, however, plants have evolved various defence strategies to cope with external perturbations.

The book discusses speciation changes in response to extreme ecological conditions such as cold, heat, aridity, salinity, altitude, incidental UV radiation and high light intensity, which are particularly relevant in the current scenario of global warming. It also explores the effects of human activities and emission of phytotoxic gases.

Further, it describes the overall adaptation strategies and the multifaceted mechanisms involved (integrated complex mechanism), ranging from morphological to molecular alterations, focusing on plants’ capabilities to create an inner environment to survive the altered or extreme conditions.

This book is a valuable tool for graduate and research students, as well as for anyone working on or interested in adaptation strategies in plants.

Dr. Vertika Shukla is M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry and Ph.D. (2003) on Chemical Study of Macrolichens of Garhwal Himalayas from H.N.B. Garhwal University, Srinagar (Garhwal). Shecurrently teaches chemistry to undergraduate applied geology students at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar (Central) University, Lucknow. Dr. Shukla has completed three postdoc fellowships awarded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST, New Delhi) at CSIR National Botanical Research Institute and Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar (Central) University. She has published 64 scientific articles, mostly in respected international SCI journals. She has also coauthoredand coedited three books published by Springer. Currently she is the chief editor of the journal, Cryptogam Biodiversity and Assessment, an official journal of Indian Lichenological Society.

Dr. Shukla has more than 10 years of research and teaching experience. She has carried out extensive research on air pollution and climate change in Garhwal Himalayas. She has contributed much on secondary metabolite chemistry, accumulation and spatio-temporal behaviour of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and metals in high altitude ecosystems.

Dr. Sanjeev Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the School for Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He received his Ph.D. degree in Environmental Sciences from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow in 2015. He has published several research articles in national and international journals and has several book chapters in national and international books to his credit. He has been awarded a “Fellow of Society of Plant Research” and has also received the “Significant Contribution in Academic Activities” award from Babasaheb Bhimrao AmbedkarUniverity, Lucknow. He is joint secretary of the Prof. H.S. Srivastava Foundation for Science and Society, and The Society for Science of Climate Change and Sustainable Environment, andisco-editor of the multilingual magazine ‘KAHAAR’. Dr. Sanjeev Kumar has also worked as assistant editor for the International Journal of Functional Plant Biology, Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants and the Journal of Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability.

Dr. Narendra Kumar obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in Environmental Science from the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow. Dr. Kumar is an active researcher and academician with almost 15 years of postgraduate teaching and research experience. Dr. Kumar started his academic career as a project fellow at National Botanical research Institute (NBRI-CSIR), Lucknow, U.P., India. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Science, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), Lucknow. Dr. Kumar has successfully guided more than 50 M.Sc. Environmental Science students for their dissertation work and produced one Ph.D.

Dr. Kumar has published more than 20 international and national research papers as well as many articles in the leading newspapers. He has published 5 book chapters with reputed national and international publishers.