Ecophysiology of Tropical Plants: Recent Trends and Future Perspectives

Plants in tropical regions are coping with enormous challenges of physiological stresses owing to changing environmental and climatic conditions. Rapid growth of human population and rampant exploitation of fossil fuels and other developmental activities are actively contributing to such perturbations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected a sustained increase in carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and thereby a rise in global temperature in the coming decades. The resultant changes in precipitation patterns are now evident across the globe due to intensication of hydrological cycle. Moreover, gaseous and particulate pollutants are also an immense challenge for tropical plants. Such vagaries in environmental conditions have signicant impacts on the ecophysiological traits of plants, resulting from altered interactions of tropical plants with each other, as well as other biotic and abiotic components within the ecosystem. Books available in the market that particularly focus on ecophysiological responses of tropical plants to abiotic and biotic environmental factors under climate change are limited. This book intends to fill this knowledge gap and provides a detailed analysis on ecophysiological responses of tropical plants to these environmental challenges, as well as suggesting some approachable measures for plant adaptations to these challenges. The book is equally applicable to undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, teachers and forest managers, and policy makers.

Salient features of the book are:

1. A comprehensive discussion on adaptive mechanisms of plants through their ecophysiological responses to various biotic and abiotic stresses
2. Elaboration on the recent techniques involved in ecophysiological research
3. A detailed account of evolutionary responses of plants to changing climate
4. Discussion of recent research results and some pointers to future advancements in ecophysiological research
5. Presentation of information in a way that is accessible for students, researchers, and teachers practicing in plant physiology and ecology.

Sachchidanand Tripathi is presently working as Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, India. The areas of his interest are plant ecology, soil ecology, ecophysiology and urban ecology. He has published more than 50 publications (including research publications, books and book chapters, conference proceedings) with reputed international journals and publishers.

Rahul Bhadouria is working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Studies, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has published more than 22 papers, 22 book chapters, and 8 edited books in internationally reputed journals/publishers. His current research areas are, management of soil C dynamics to mitigate climate change, a perspective on tree seedling survival and growth attributes in tropical dry forests under the realm of climate change, plant community assembly, functional diversity and soil attributes along the forest-savanna-grassland continuum in India, recovery of degraded mountains in central Himalayas and urban ecology.

Dr. Pratap Srivastava is presently working as Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, India. He has completed his Ph.D. in Botany from Banaras Hindu University, India. His area of research includes soil C dynamics, biochar technology, plant ecology, and waste management. He has published more than 50 research publications in international journals/books in the fields of soil C dynamics, C sequestration, environmental contaminant removal and waste management. He is actively involved as an ad-hoc reviewer of several international journals published by reputed publishers.

Rishikesh Singh is working as National Post-doctoral Fellow (NPDF) at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. Dr. Singh obtained his doctoral degree from Institute of Environment & Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He is an environmental scientist with his research interests in soil carbon dynamics, land-use change and management, waste management, environmental contaminants, biochar, and carbon sequestration. He has published several research and review articles, and is a reviewer of several international journals of Elsevier, Wiley, Taylor and Francis, Frontiers, PLoS, and Springer Nature groups. He has published six books in leading international publishers such as Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley.

Dr. Rajkumari S. Devi is presently working as Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College (University of Delhi), Delhi, India. She obtained her doctoral degree from the Department of Botany, University of Delhi, India. The area of her research is plant conservation and cryobiology. She has published more than 30 publications with international journals and publishers.