**Introduction**

Besides the efforts on understanding the mechanisms of plant responses to abiotic stresses and breeding crops with increased tolerance and adaptation to climate changes, which is presented in Chapter 6 of this book, it is necessary to look for some sustainable methods and agricultural practice to obtain stable crop yields in the coming decades. The advantages of application of chemicals and biostimulants, together with traditional agricultural practice in alleviation of climate change effects on crop production, are presented in Chapter 7. Since different abiotic stresses are affecting plant growth simultaneously, plant response is very complex and difficult to predict and breed for improved tolerance to abiotic stresses. Finally,

8 gives an overview of the different stressors and mechanisms of crop response to

**Dr. Violeta Andjelkovic** Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje, Serbia

them, with recommended agricultural techniques that could be used to help plants to sur‐

We are grateful to all the authors for their contributions. We express our special thanks and appreciation to Ms. Kristina Kardum, Publishing Process Manager, for her encouragement

vive and bring yield in spite of the negative effects of the upcoming climate change.

and help in bringing out the book in the present form.

Chapter

VIII Preface

**Chapter 1**

was less

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Climate Changes and Abiotic**

**Introductory Chapter: Climate Changes and Abiotic** 

Climate change is a problem with the highest priority facing the mankind today, influencing agricultural production worldwide. According to IPCC [1], human activities are the main factor for changes that are unique over decades to millennia. Gas emissions have increased since

than 300 ppm from the beginning of human civilization to 1900. The present level at about 400 ppm was not reached in more than 400,000 years. The period from 1983 to 2012 was the warmest 30-year period of the last 1400 years in the Northern Hemisphere. The Earth's average temperature increased for 1.4°C in twentieth century and is predicted to increase about 11.5°C in twenty-first century. With more climate disruption by human activities, average temperature is predicted to rise in twenty-first century, heat waves are going to be more frequent and last longer, as well as occurrence of unevenly distributed precipitation in many areas. Warming and acidification of oceans will continue, followed by rising sea levels due to the melting of polar ice, and additional rainfall leads to flooding. Climate change caused by humans is significantly faster than natural global climate change during the past millions of years and most plants cannot naturally adapt according to fast changes of ecosystems caused by global warming. Temperature increases of about 4°C in late twentieth century, is reducing wheat, rice, and maize global production and with increasing food demand, seriously affecting food security. The consequences of global warming on crop production became a major task for researchers in the past decades. Also, climate change affects a number of days when plants can grow, by their decreasing of 11% until 2100. Simultaneously, extreme temperatures and rainfalls, lowering of available water, and changes in soil quality are expected to make difficulties for plants to grow and survive. Nevertheless, plants will be exposed to different abiotic and biotic stresses at the same time and their responses will be more complex with overlapping of different stress response pathways.

1950s, reach the highest level nowadays than ever. Atmospheric concentration of CO<sup>2</sup>

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76102

**Stress in Plants**

**Stress in Plants**

Violeta Andjelkovic

**1. Climate change**

Violeta Andjelkovic

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76102

#### **Introductory Chapter: Climate Changes and Abiotic Stress in Plants Introductory Chapter: Climate Changes and Abiotic Stress in Plants**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76102

Violeta Andjelkovic Violeta Andjelkovic

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76102
