Heavy Metal Stress Response in Plants and Their Adaptation
摘要
Agricultural practices, like fungicides applications and organic/mineral fertilization, as well as industrial mining activities, can be responsible for the increase in the levels of heavy metals in soil. When there is excessive in soil matrix and/or soil solution, these metals can stress the short-cycle plant species producing grains or vegetables, as well as cover crops or the long-cycle ones like fruit trees. The nutritional disorder can be diagnosed by changes in root morphology and anatomy, including root and shoot physiological and biochemical variables. Thus, excess metals in the soil matrix and plant tissues can impair the absorption of water and nutrients and compromise plant development, yield and quality. The objectives of the present chapter are (a) to present the impact of an excess of some heavy metals in the growth medium on the morphology and anatomy of roots, nutritional, biochemical, and physiological variables in different plant species and (b) to report the main adaptation strategies of cultivated and native species when cultivated in soils characterized by an excess of heavy metals.