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Books dealing with climatic change are commonplace, as are those
concerned with effects of environmental stresses on plants. The
present volume distinguishes itself from earlier publications by
highlighting several interrelated environmental stresses that are
changing in intensity as the climate warms in response to the
accumulation of 'greenhouse' gases. The stresses examined at the
NATO Advanced Research Workshop upon which this book is based
include atmospheric pollutants, flooding and sub mergence, drought
and cold. In future, successful farming or landscape management
will ultimately depend on strategies that offset the effects of
these and other environmental constraints, while exploiting more
favourable features. However, the to predicted speed of climate
change may exceed the rate at which new approaches farming,
forestry, landscape management and genetic conservation can be
developed through experience and retroactive response. The
alternative is to anticipate future needs and thus identify
appropriate management and legislative strategies by research and
discussion. The contents of this volume contribute to these vital
processes, upon which the productivity of agroecosystems and
conservation of natural ecosystems may increasingly depend. Those
with any lingering doubts concerning the gravity of the likely
future situation are especially encouraged to read the opening
chapter. For convenience, chapters discussing pollution, flooding,
drought and cold are grouped in separate sections. However, many
authors have taken care to emphasise that interactions between the
changing combinations of stresses pose particular problems for
plants and plant communities."
This NATO Advanced Research Workshop held 25-30 September, 1988 at
the Villa Gualino, Turin, Italy, was the first international
meeting of its kind to be devoted solely to cell separation in
plants. The partial or complete dissociation of one cell from
another is an integral process of differentiation. Partial cell
separations are basic physiological components of the overall
programme of plant development. Complete cell separations are major
events in the ripening of fruits, and the shedding of plant parts.
Unscheduled cell separations commonly occur when tissues are
subjected to pathogenic invasion. Environmental stresses too, evoke
their own separation responses. Over the past five years much new
knowledge has been acquired on the regulation of gene expression in
specific stages of cell differentiation. Specific molecular markers
have been identified that designate the competence of cells for
achieving separation. Certain of the chemical signals (hormones,
elicitors) that must be emitted or perceived by cells to initiate
and sustain separation, are now known to us, and the resulting cell
wall changes have come under close chemical scrutiny. The Turin
meeting was a focus for those currently involved in such
investigations. It assessed factors controlling cell separation in
a wide spectrum of different cell types under a variety of
conditions.
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