"Education, arts and social sciences, natural and technical sciences in the United States and Canada".

This book provides the reader relevant information about actual knowledge about the process of allelopathy, covering all aspects from the molecular to the ecological level. Special relevance is given to the physiological and ecophysiological aspects of allelopathy. Several ecosystems are studied and methodological considerations are taken into account in several different chapters. The book has been written to be useful both for Ph.D. students and for senior researchers, so the chapters include all necessary information to be read by beginners, but they also include a lot of useful information and discussion for the initiated.

The Handbook of Plant Ecophysiology Techniques you have now in your hands is the result of several combined events and efforts. The birth of this handbook can be traced as far as 1997, when our Plant Ecophysiology lab at the University of Vigo hosted a practical course on Plant Ecophysiology Techniques. That course showed us how much useful a handbook presenting a bunch of techniques would be for the scientists beginning to work on Plant Ecophysiology. In fact, we wrote a short handbook explaining the basics of the techniques taught in that 1997 course: Flow cytometry to measure ploidy levels, Use of a Steady-State porometer to measure transpiration, In vivo measure of fluorescence, HPLC analysis of low molecular weight phenolics, Spectrophotometric determinations of free proline and soluble proteins, TLC polyamines contents measures, Isoenzymatic electrophoresis, Use of IRGA and oxygen electrode. That modest handbook, written in Spanish, was very helpful, both for the people who attended the course and for other who have used it for beginning to work in Plant Ecophysiology. The present Handbook is much more ambitious, and it includes more techniques. But we have also had in mind the young scientists beginning to work on Plant Ecophysiology. In 1999 François Pellissier leaded a proposal presented to the European Commission in the Fifth Framework Program in the High Level * Scientific Conferences, including three EuroLab Courses about lab and field techniques useful to improve allelopathic research.

Saline land is a resource capable of significant production. Recent advances in research in breeding for salt tolerance in wheat, biotechnology in rice, and selection and rehabilitation of salt-tolerant plants are of economic importance in arid/saline conditions. This book gives some practical approaches for saline agriculture and afforestation, and describes examples of cultivating salt-tolerant/halophytic plants for commercial interest on salt-affected land or with highly salinized water in Australia, China, Central Asia, Egypt, Pakistan, and Russia. It also explores the possibilities of arid/saline agriculture and afforestation in UAE.

Meeting the world’s food security challenge will require a multi-national, collaborative effort to integrate the best research from science, engineering and socioeconomics so that technological advances can bring benefits where they are most needed. The present book covers the effect of major environmental problems on crop production and how to cope with these issues for sustainable agriculture and improvements of crops. The world’s population is predicted to hit 9.6 Billion by 2050, up from today’s total of nearly 7.3 Billion, and with it food demand is predicted to increase substantially. The post-war ‘second agricultural revolution’ in developed countries, and the ‘green revolution’ in developing nations in the mid- 1960s converted agricultural practices and elevated crop yields spectacularly, but the outcome is levelling off and will not meet projected demand. Simultaneously, crop production is affected by many other factors, including industrial pollution, overuse of fertilizers and insecticides, heavy metal and radiation stresses etc. It has been noted that many pests are becoming resistant to insecticides. Estimates vary, but around 25% of crops can be lost to pests and diseases. Climate change associated with agriculture is also a global issue. Agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gases and is estimated to account for 10-12% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many of the issues highlighted are global problems and are addressed thoroug hly in this work.