The Life of Plants in a Changing Environment

A lot of the talk in today's world revolves around climate change. We hear a lot about it from the activism perspective, but not much from the scientific perspective. And I think that's creating a gap in the fight against global warming. A few months ago, I received a free copy of the book- 'The Life of Plants in a Changing Environment' written by Rishikesh Upadhyay, which was emailed to me by the author's team. 

Goodreads

When I received the book, I was quite skeptical about reading it, because it is an academic book composed of 11 scientific papers. I do not have any formal training in botany; my knowledge of it comes majorly from my school biology lessons, so I was a bit overwhelmed. But I decided to give it a go and read with an open mind. And I'm so glad I did that. 

The first chapter talks about secondary metabolites in plants. I wasn't aware of this before reading the book, but the authors made a good attempt to simplify it and make it comprehensible. Secondary metabolites are these organic compounds that are not directly involved in growth or development, but help in plant defense and adaptation, in times of external (abiotic and biotic) stress. Plants, unlike animals, cannot move away from a place if it becomes hard to live in, rather can only adapt by secreting chemicals to ward away predators or to protect themselves from harsh environments. This has a lot of parallels to the human immune system! Vanillin (the compound in Vanilla), Taxol (used to treat cancer), Red Pigments, and Quinine (used to treat Malaria), are all examples of secondary metabolites. So as you can see, these metabolites are quite essential for our industries. 

Did you know traditional recipes of Marshmallows used to include the secondary metabolite which was extracted from the Althaea Officinalis, which gave it the flavor, and was used as a cough suppressant!  Or that the reason spices like Cumin and Pepper are believed to boost human health, is because they have several secondary metabolites that are anti-microbial. 

Reading this, really made me appreciate nature for how well-constructed it is. Plants are also avidly trying to adapt to the changing environment, and we must give them credit for putting up a stern fight against climate change! 

The following chapters chronicle the various abiotic and biotic stresses that affect plants. One key concept which appears throughout the book is about Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). This is when, due to environmental stress, the oxygen molecules in the plant begin to absorb a lot of energy and become activated as radicals (like H₂O₂ or OH⁻). If there is a lot of ROS being produced, it could lead to a harmful condition called Oxidative Stress, which inhibits germination, reduces photosynthesis, causes cell death, etc. So as you can see, plants must lead stress-free lives, hence we must make the environment favorable for them! 

Chapters 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 11, go into more detail about the experiments done to assess the impacts due to the various stresses experienced by the plant, like excess salinity in the soil, drought, high temperature, etc, which are extremely eye-opening. A few things which I found interesting, are that in places of excess water logging, cells called Aerenchyma, are formed in the roots which help in the exchange of gases. And, some plants called Hyperaccumulator plants are capable of accumulating heavy metals (like Cadmium, Nickel, Zinc, etc)! These plants could really help in cleaning heavy metals from areas near industries! 

Chapter 6 was shocking, as it spoke about microplastics and how they sneakily enter our lives. Each year 350 to 400 million tons of plastic are produced globally, and almost one-third of it ends up in the soil or freshwater! We really have to be more careful about our plastic consumption! 

My personal favorites were Chapter 9 and Chapter 10. I am deeply fascinated by physics, so I was thrilled to learn more about botany's intersection with physics! Chapter 9 is all about Magnetic Nanoparticles. Studies have shown that plants are affected by magnetic fields, and low fields have even been shown to induce germination even under stressful conditions!  Treating plants with magnetic nanoparticles could even serve as an alternative to chemical fertilizers, and provide a wide range of benefits! Just a few days ago, I watched a video on how humans sense Magnetic Fields, so this chapter was definitely the connecting link. The field of Nanobiotechnology has so many facets and it will surely develop immensely in the coming days! 

Chapter 10 was something I never expected... The effect of radiation from mobile phones on plants. I have seen a lot of videos on bringing technology into farms, and I myself have worked on a project related to building a farm for the future, but this was something I had never considered. I was glued to this chapter. I learned that cell phones emit low levels of non-ionizing radiation, which is basically radiation with long wavelengths and high energy. If present at higher levels, these radiations have the capability to break bonds and even damage DNA. The chapter spoke about a study done wherein dormant seeds were treated with 1800 MHz of radiation, and this produced a startling reduction in seedling growth! 

It's saddening to see that on top of all the stresses plants have to face, mobile phone radiation is also another. 

I really enjoyed reading the book, as each page was filled with amazing experiments, research, and facts which I will now use as trivia to tell my friends and family! I think one thing which could have been improved in the book, is the order of the chapters. I felt that the related chapters could have been grouped together, instead of being scattered around. 

This book also reminded me of another book I read recently called The World According to Anna written by Jostein Gaarder. It is a haunting story about what could happen to the future if we do nothing to stop climate change. It could serve as an additional reading after you read this book. 

Goodreads

'The Life of Plants in a Changing Environment' was a great starter course in botany for me, and it showed the real-world applications of all the things I had learned in school, like phytohormones, and growth movements. It also made me realize how sometimes we tend to be selfish about climate change i.e., we mostly hear about its implications only for human life, almost forgetting that we live in a mutually complementary ecosystem. There is a myriad of news articles about how the melting of the polar regions will cause displacement in human settlements, or how we'll run out of water... but we never think about how this will be catastrophic for flora too.

It is a must-read for anyone who is curious about plants, climate change, nature, or science in general.  If you want to delve deeper into the realm of plants, I would recommend reading Vanya's posts at  The Forest Diaries. She is definitely the botanist of the blogosphere, who beautifully shares her experiences about living in the Western Ghats. 

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed reading this post. I hope you too will pick up this book and get a scientific glimpse into the effects of climate change. 

Do you like botany or physics? Have you read any academic books? Do you have anything to say about climate change? Any fun plant facts you came across recently? Any tips to make my writing better? Are you a blogger too? 

Tell me in the comments! 😁