Abiotic stress

[1] The non-living variable must influence the environment beyond its normal range of variation to adversely affect the population performance or individual physiology of the organism in a significant way.

[2] Whereas a biotic stress would include living disturbances such as fungi or harmful insects, abiotic stress factors, or stressors, are naturally occurring, often intangible and inanimate factors such as intense sunlight, temperature or wind that may cause harm to the plants and animals in the area affected.

The most common of the stressors are the easiest for people to identify, but there are many other, less recognizable abiotic stress factors which affect environments constantly.

Although these effects may be either beneficial or detrimental, the location of the area is crucial in determining the extent of the impact that abiotic stress will have.

So, a taiga or boreal forest is at the mercy of whatever abiotic stress factors may come along, while tropical zones are much less susceptible to such stressors.

Even though it is healthy for an ecosystem, a wildfire can still be considered an abiotic stressor, because it puts an obvious stress on individual organisms within the area.

While a flood will kill most plants living low on the ground in a certain area, if there is rice there, it will thrive in the wet conditions.

[2] Lastly, abiotic stress has enabled species to grow, develop, and evolve, through the process of natural selection.

[13] One of the primary responses to abiotic stress such as high salinity is the disruption of the Na+/K+ ratio in the cytoplasm of the plant cell.

High concentrations of Na+, for example, can decrease the capacity for the plant to take up water and also alter enzyme and transporter functions.

Evolved adaptations to efficiently restore cellular ion homeostasis have led to a wide variety of stress tolerant plants.

[14] Facilitation, or the positive interactions between different species of plants, is an intricate web of association in a natural environment.

This could possibly be because the plants need a stronger network to survive in a harsher environment, so their interactions between species, such as cross-pollination or mutualistic actions, become more common to cope with the severity of their habitat.

Thus, when the abiotic stress occurs, the plant has already prepared defense mechanisms that can be activated faster and increase tolerance.

Some examples of adverse conditions (which may be caused by climate change) are high or low temperatures, drought, salinity, and toxins.

[20] Soil salinization, the accumulation of water-soluble salts to levels that negatively impact plant production, is a global phenomenon affecting approximately 831 million hectares of land.

[24] High soil salinity content can be harmful to plants because water-soluble salts can alter osmotic potential gradients and consequently inhibit many cellular functions.

[27] Phosphorus (P) is an essential macronutrient required for plant growth and development, but it is present only in limited quantities in most of the world's soil.

This binding then affects the opening of ion channels, thereby decreasing turgor pressure in the stomata and causing them to close.

[32] Another extremely important factor in dealing with drought stress and regulating the uptake and export of water is aquaporins (AQPs).

[11] It is also possible to see in animals that a high genetic diversity is beneficial in providing resiliency against harsh abiotic stressors.