Impact of climate change-induced alterations in peatland vegetation phenology and composition on carbon balance.

Global climate is changing faster than humankind has ever experienced. Model-based predictions of future climate are becoming more complex and precise, but they still lack crucial information about the reaction of some important ecosystems, such as peatlands. Peatlands belong to one of the largest carbon stores on the Earth. They are mostly distributed in high latitudes, where the temperature rises faster than in the other parts of the planet. Warmer climate and changes in precipitation patterns cause changes in the composition and phenology of peatland vegetation. Peat mosses are becoming less abundant, vascular plants cover is increasing, and the vegetation season and phenophases of vascular plants start sooner. The alterations in vegetation cause changes in the carbon assimilation and release of greenhouse gases. Therefore, this article reviews the impact of climate change-induced alterations in peatland vegetation phenology and composition on future climate and the uncertainties that need to be addressed for more accurate climate prediction.

Progress in understanding salt stress response in plants using biotechnological tools.

Salinization is a worldwide environmental problem, which is negatively impacting crop yield and thus posing a threat to the world's food security. Considering the rising threat of salinity, it is need of time, to understand the salt tolerant mechanism in plants and find avenues for the development of salinity resistant plants. Several plants tolerate salinity in a different manner, thereby halophytes and glycophytes evolved altered mechanisms to counter the stress. Therefore, in this review article, physiological, metabolic, and molecular aspects of the plant adaptation to salt stress have been discussed. The conventional breeding techniques for developing salt tolerant plants has not been much successful, due to its multigenic trait. The inflow of data from plant sequencing projects and annotation of genes led to the identification of many putative genes having a role in salt stress. The bioinformatics tools provided preliminary information and were helpful for making salt stress-specific databases. The microRNA identification and characterization led to unraveling the finer intricacies of the network. The transgenic approach finally paved a way for overexpressing some important genes viz. DREB, MYB, COMT, SOS, PKE, NHX, etc. conferred salt stress tolerance. In this review, we tried to show the effect of salinity on plants, considering ion homeostasis, antioxidant defense response, proteins involved, possible utilization of transgenic plants, and bioinformatics for coping with this stress factor. An overview of previous studies related to salt stress is presented in order to assist researchers in providing a potential solution for this increasing environmental threat.

Impact of warming and reduced precipitation on morphology and chlorophyll concentration in peat mosses (Sphagnum angustifolium and S. fallax).

Peatlands are one of the most important ecosystems due to their biodiversity and abundant organic compounds; therefore, it is important to observe how different plant species in peatlands react to changing environmental conditions. Sphagnum spp. are the main component of peatlands and are considered as the creator of conditions favorable for carbon storage in the form of peat. Sphagnum angustifolium and Sphagnum fallax are taxonomically very close species. To examine their adaptability to climate change, we studied the morphology and pigment content of these two species from environmental manipulation sites in Poland, where the environment was continuously manipulated for temperature and precipitation. The warming of peat was induced by using infrared heaters, whereas total precipitation was reduced by a curtain that cuts the nighttime precipitation. Morphology of S. angustifolium stayed under climate manipulation relatively stable. However, the main morphological parameters of S. fallax were significantly affected by precipitation reduction. Thus, this study indicates S. angustifolium is better adapted in comparison to S. fallax for drier and warmer conditions.

Potential of Karrikins as Novel Plant Growth Regulators in Agriculture.

Karrikins (KARs) have been identified as molecules derived from plant material smoke, which have the capacity to enhance seed germination for a wide range of plant species. However, KARs were observed to not only impact seed germination but also observed to influence several biological processes. The plants defected in the KARs signaling pathway were observed to grow differently with several morphological changes. The observation of KARs as a growth regulator in plants leads to the search for an endogenous KAR-like molecule. Due to its simple genomic structure, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana L.) helps to understand the signaling mechanism of KARs and phenotypic responses caused by them. However, different species have a different phenotypic response to KARs treatment. Therefore, in the current work, updated information about the KARs effect is presented. Results of research on agricultural and horticultural crops are summarized and compared with the findings of Arabidopsis studies. In this article, we suggested that KARs may be more important in coping with modern problems than one could imagine.