In the present era, rapid industrialization and urbanization has resulted in unwanted physiological, chemical, and biological changes in the environment that have harmful effects on crop quality and productivity. This situation is further worsened by the growing demand for food due to an ever increasing population. This forces plant scientists and agronomists to look forward for alternative strategies to enhance crop production and produce safer, healthier foods. Biotic and abiotic stresses are major constraints to crop productivity and have become an important challenge to agricultural scientists and agronomists due to the fact that both stress factors considerably reduce agriculture production worldwide per year.
Silicon has various effects on plant growth and development, as well as crop yields. It increases photosynthetic activity, creates better disease resistance, reduces heavy metal toxicity, improves nutrient imbalance, and enhances drought tolerance. Silicon in Plants: Advances and Future Prospects presents the beneficial effects of silicon in improving productivity in plants and enhancing the capacity of plants to resist stresses from environmental factors. It compiles recent advances made worldwide in different leading laboratories concerning the role of silicon in plant biology in order to make these outcomes easily accessible to academicians, researchers, industrialists, and students. Nineteen chapters summarize information regarding the role of silicon in plants, their growth and development, physiological and molecular responses, and responses against the various abiotic stresses.
Dr. Durgesh Kumar Tripathi
works as a UGC Dr. D. S. Kothari Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Dr. Tripathi earned his D. Phil. degree from D. D. Pant Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India. His main research area is Crop stress physiology, Plant biotechnology, Agro-nanotechnology, Plant molecular biology, Phytolith, and applications of Laserspectroscopy for the study of several plant materials. His research interest is to obtain novel abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms to plants. He has published more than 50 national and international research papers, review articles and several book chapters in international books. He is a life member of several academic and professional societies and an editor and reviewer of several international journals of repute.
Dr. Vijay Pratap Singh is an assistant professor, Department of Botany, Government Ramanuj Pratap Singhdev Post Graduate College, Baikunthpur, Koriya, an affiliated degree college of Sarguja University, Chhattisgarh, India. Dr. Singh earned his D. Phil. degree from the University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India, in the study of oxidative stress and antioxidant systems in some cyanobacteria simultaneously exposed to ultraviolet B and heavy metals. He has authored 49 publications, as well as editorials, in international journals of repute. His research interest is abiotic stress tolerance in cyanobacteria and plants. Dr. Singh is also an editor and reviewer of several international journals of repute.
Dr. Parvaiz Ahmad is senior assistant professor in the Department of Botany at Sri Pratap College, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. He completed his postgraduation in botany in 2000 from Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, India. After earning a doctorate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, he joined the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, in 2007. His main research area is stress physiology and molecular biology. He has published more than 50 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and 35 book chapters. He is also an editor of 14 volumes (1 with Studium Press Pvt. India Ltd., 9 with Springer, 3 with Elsevier, and 1 with John Wiley). He is a recipient of the Junior Research Fellowship and Senior Research Fellowship by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India. Dr. Parvaiz has been awarded the Young Scientist Award under the fast-track scheme in 2007 by the Department of Science and Technology, India. Dr. Parvaiz is actively engaged in studying the molecular and physiobiochemical responses of different agricultural and horticultural plants under environmental stress.
Prof. Devendra Kumar Chauhan is a professor in the Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India. Professor Chauhan earned his M. Sc. and D. Phil. degrees from the University of Allahabad. He has published more than 100 research papers, review articles, and book chapters in journals of national and international repute and has also published one edited book. His main research areas are agro-nanotechnology, anatomy, stress physiology, evolutionary botany, morphology, and biodiversity. Professor Chauhan is a member of the National Academy of Science, Allahabad, India, and a life member and fellow of several academic and professional societies. He is also an editor and reviewer for several international journals of repute.
Prof. Sheo Mohan Prasad is a professor in the Department of Botany, University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India. Professor Prasad earned his academic degrees from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. He has authored more than 133 scientific publications. His main area of research is the physiology and biochemistry of plants, as well as cyanobacteria under abiotic stresses, for example, ultraviolet B, heavy metals, pesticides, temperature, salinity, and high light intensity. Professor Prasad is an editor and reviewer of several international journals of repute.
