A plant scientist at the University of Missouri has discovered a new way to measure plant stress caused by extreme weather events. Phys.org portal.
Ron Mittler discovered a useful quality of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - their role as a communication signal that can indicate if plants are under stress.
"When heat and drought stressors add up, plants can't use groundwater as a source of fluid, so they close their stomata, which causes leaves to get hot," said Mittler, who works at the College of Agriculture. food and natural resources. “That's why the combination of drought and heat is really dangerous, the temperature of the leaves is much higher than that of a plant subjected to simple heating. The change can be two to four degrees and that can make a huge difference.”
Plant stress is also associated with yield loss, but existing analytical studies on the subject tend to focus on how crops respond to stress alone. However, according to Mittler, plant survival will drop dramatically as the number of stressors continues to increase to three to six. Too high or low levels of ROS can harm the plant, but the optimal level is safe. And as an indicator, they are very convenient.