Physiology of Halophytes: Signaling, Omics, and Tolerance Mechanisms

Halophytes, salt-tolerant plants that grow in soils and waters with high salinity, are spectacular plants that can prove tremendously valuable to both man as well as nature due to their unique physiology, such as to enhance the productivity of crops in salt-affected soils, for land re-vegetation, to develop salt-tolerant crops, and to provide forage for cattle. This new book presents scientific knowledge and expertise on the mechanisms of plant responses to various environmental stresses, providing a systematic review of the physiological responses of halophytes to salinity, discussing adaptive pathways of halophytes and the prospects of increasing plant salinity tolerance.

Nivas M. Desai, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Plant Science Research (FAPSR) as well as Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Protection, Sadguru Gadage Maharaj College, Karad, Satara District, Maharashtra, India. With over a decade in the field of plant science research, Dr. Desai has a unique identity that shines through his more than 32 international and national publications. His research areas are marine botany, plant physiology, functional foods, and photochemistry. He is a recipient of a DST Fastrack Young Scientist Fellowship and has successfully completed a project on developing biofuel from marine cyanobacteria. He holds two Australian and two Indian patents. He has attended more than 30 international and national conferences. He is also the recipient of several young scientist awards and one research excellence award. He is the author of many book chapters and has edited six books.

Ganesh Chandrakant Nikalje, PhD, is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Botany at R. K. Talreja College, Ulhasnagar (affiliated to University of Mumbai), India. His major areas of research are unravelling the salt adaptation mechanism of halophytes, development of bio-saline agriculture, phytoremediation, endophyte-assisted growth promotion and stress tolerance in plants, and assessment of wild vegetables for nutritional and value-added products. He has received grants from the University of Mumbai for research projects and travel grants from DST-SERB, India. He earned his doctorate in Botany from Savitribai Phule Pune University and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India, under the BARC-SPPU Collaborative PhD programme. He has completed his postdoctoral research at Gyongsang National University, South Korea, as a SERB-SIREFellow of Science and Engineering Research Board, Govt. of India, India. He hasreceived an MS Swaminathan Research Excellence Award 2021 and a Young PlantScientist Award 2021 from the Association of Plant Science Researchers (APSR)and the Plantica Foundation Dehradun, India. He is a recognized adviser for PhD and MSc students at the University of Mumbai. He is serving as an editor and reviewer for several international journals. He has been invited as a resource person for different conferences and symposia. To date, he has published three books,23 research/review papers in international journals, and 16 book chapters inedited books for international publishers.