The responding relationship between plants and environment is the essential principle for agricultural sustainable development on the globe

Abstract

The mutual-responding relationship between plants and environment is involved in all life processes, which are the essential bases for different types of sustainable development on the globe, particularly the critical basis for agricultural sustainable development. How to regulate the above relationship between plants and the corresponding environment (in particular soil environment) is the key problem to modern sustainable agriculture development under global climate change, which is one of the hot topics in the field of plant biology. Detailed dissection of this responding relationship is also important for conducting global eco-environmental restoration and construction. Although powerful methodology and dataset related to genomics, post-genomics, and metabolomics have provided some insights into this relationship, crop physiological measures are also critical for crop full performance in field. With the increase of tested plants (including model plants) and development of integrated molecular biology, a complete understanding of the relationship at different scales under biotic and abiotic stresses will be accelerated. In the current paper, we will cover some important aspects in combination with the recent work from our laboratory and related advances reflected by international academic journals, as follows: plant physiological function performance under natural condition, plant gene regulatory network system under abiotic stresses, gene regulatory network system and drought resistance improvement, summary of the related work from our laboratory, conclusions, and acknowledgement.

Dynamic Changes of Stipa bungeana Steppe Species Diversity as Better Indicators for Soil Quality and Sustainable Utilization Mode in Yunwu Mountain Nature Reserve, Ningxia, China

“…After 15 years of enclosure, environmental factors and litter layer (litter thickness reaches 3-5 cm) lead to bad soil aeration which influences the renewal seedling, forage regeneration, and finally the stability of the system. Bad soil aeration directly inhibits the normal growth and development of grass and the formation of species diversity leading to the decline of natural regeneration of grassland and remarkable decrease in biomass [25][26][27][28][29][30]. Species composition of plant community is an important symbol of grassland community property, structure, and function.…”

“…Human activities, such as cutting and grazing, are considered as the most influential factors affecting grassland habitat by obviously influencing the composition and structure of grassland species diversity [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. A seven-year research of short forage grassland shows that heavy grazing can reduce total grass production by about 40% in growth season from June to July, and the highest production can be obtained by heavy grazing in the late growth season [2,3,27,28]. In this study, heavy grazing reduces total grass production by about 30-45% in semiarid area in growth season from June to July.…”

“…Plant compensatory growth can be decided by the net effect of inhibition and promotion, which relates to the community type, stocking rate, environment condition, and grazing history [5]. Domestic and foreign studies on plant compensatory growth mostly focus on theory and model, and the study through comprehensive and systematic experiment is very much limited [15,[25][26][27][28][29]. …”

Towards sustainable irrigated Mediterranean agriculture: implications for water conservation in semi-arid environments

“…In this sense, sustainable agricultural development should be based on the sustainable management of land and water, and thus adopt the basic pattern of using and maintaining natural resources, implementing technical change and mechanisms to ensure the requirements of today's population and future generations for farming products (Di Pietro, 2001;Sattler, Nagel, Werner, & Zander, 2010;Tait & Morris, 2000). To achieve this, it is necessary to preserve the resources of land, water, animal and plant genes, without causing environmental degradation, and by ensuring the rational application of technology, economic sustainability and a regard for societal values (Sharma & Minhas, 2005;Lyson, 2002;Zhou & Shao, 2008). After the first evidence of the pernicious effects of the green revolution, through the CAP, several regulations have been aimed at reaching a better equilibrium between agricultural activities and the environment ( Figure 1).…”

A model for evaluating the influence of water and salt on vegetation in a semi-arid desert region, northern China

“…However, water and salt can obviously influence the distribution of these species in local areas (Zhou and Shao 2008). For this reason many models select plant species as a response variable to hydrological factors (Austin et al 2006;Venterink and Wassen 1997;Gremmen et al 1990).…”