The Mechanisms of Plants’ Acclimation to Dry Atmospheres
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 167
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant ecophysiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: plant ecophysiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: plant ecophysiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Water–plant relations have been a subject of sustained investigation by researchers in physiology, ecophysiology, and even functional phytogeography since the early twentieth century. Seminal works, such as Schimper’s (1903) classic “Plant-geography upon a physiological basis”, have offered excellent perspectives on how plant responses to water deficit shape vegetation in habitats prone to aridity. Thousands of scientific contributions have since been devoted to examining plant regulation of water resources, the limits of dehydration tolerance, the dynamics of water movement between the soil and atmosphere, and the issues associated with disruptions of this continuum, among other topics.
Nevertheless, most studies have focused on the water status of plants in relation to that of soil, as the primary source of water. It is common to relate soil water potential, or its equivalent in soil moisture content, to progressive drought cycles in ad hoc experimental designs or to seasonal patterns in regions with dry climates.
However, the concept of the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum, which effectively frames water movement through plants, necessarily entails the presence of a sink—the atmosphere—that can impose extremely steep water potential gradients on aerial organs, far exceeding those observed in the rest of the continuum. In this regard, it is becoming increasingly important to deepen our understanding of how atmospheric water status, in terms of the water potential it reaches, influences plant response mechanisms under high atmospheric demand. This applies both to vegetation naturally occurring in environments where atmospheric vapor pressure deficit may be very high and to crops intended for introduction into areas where the atmosphere can attain substantial levels of dryness.
The aim of this Special Issue is to assemble contributions that advance the abovementioned body of knowledge, particularly in the context of global trends in atmospheric warming, which may intensify stresses associated with atmospheric aridity.
Dr. Eustaquio Gil-Pelegrín
Dr. Domingo Sancho-Knapik
Dr. Juan Pedro Ferrio
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- vapour pressure deficit
- stomatal response
- stomatal sensitivity
- sclerophylly
- water economy
- atmospheric drought
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