**7. Conclusion**

The present trend of climate change and the resulting variation in temperature and precipitation indicate a global rise in abiotic stress factors for plants, mainly drought, salinity and UV radiation. These factors affect the plant in an integrated way, eventually leading a loss in the plant productivity. This becomes an alarming concern from agricultural as well as ecological perspective. The versatile plant beings have a number of mechanisms to articulate their defence against these stressinducing factors, which are controlled genetically via a well coordinated cascade of signalling events. Aside from this, there is also interplay of these mechanisms with epigenetic memory, which makes the plant more resilient and better adapted to

*Understanding the Impact of Global Climate Change on Abiotic Stress in Plants… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109618*

climate change conditions. However, even though plants have devised strategies of their own, it is still desirable to provide them with added assistance, given the fact that plants in the open are often exposed to multiple threats or stressors simultaneously. In this regard, the role of PGPR is imperative, because not only are they a source of beneficial activities that aid in the overall growth of plants but also a decisive tool for boosting the plants' defence mechanism against ROS and abiotic stress. Thus, the impact of climate change on plant life is manifolds, and we need to address it more resolutely with an understanding that friendly micro-organisms also play a vital role in this battle.
