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Responses of Physiological, Morphological and Anatomical Traits to Abiotic Stress in Woody Plants
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This review examines how trees and woody plants respond to environmental stresses including drought, flooding, extreme temperatures, heavy metals, and microplastics. Microplastics in soil can disrupt water transport and nutrient uptake in trees, potentially affecting forest health and the broader ecosystem. The effects of combined stresses, such as microplastics plus drought, are not simply additive and need further study.
Abiotic stresses could have complex and diverse effects on the growth and development of forest trees. In this review, we summarized the responses of morphological, physiological and anatomical traits in woody plants to abiotic stresses, including drought, flood, extreme temperature, salinity, heavy metal, microplastics and combined stresses, especially from the xylem perspective. Under most abiotic stress, xylem hydraulic conductivity decreases, which is associated with leaf stomatal regulation and the inhibition of aquaporin (AQP) activity. Meanwhile, woody plants regulate the size and morphology of their roots and leaves to balance water absorption and transpiration. The anatomical traits are also altered, such as denser leaf stomata, narrower conduits and thicker cell walls. In addition, different stresses have unique effects, such as flood-induced adventitious roots and aeration tissues, forest fire-induced irreversible xylem damage, low temperature-induced tissue freezing, salt stress-induced hinderance of ion absorption and heavy metal-induced biological toxicity. Under stresses of drought, flooding and heavy metals, woody plants’ growth may occasionally be promoted. The effects of combined stress on the physiological, morphological and anatomical traits of woody plants are not simply additive, with the related mechanism to be further studied, especially in natural or near-natural conditions.
More Papers Like This
Abiotic Stress Responses in Woody Plants: Morphological, Physiological, and Anatomical Features
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This review summarizes how various environmental stresses including flood, drought, temperature extremes, salt, heavy metals, and microplastics affect the growth and internal structure of trees and woody plants. The section on microplastics is one of several stress factors covered, noting that microplastics can disrupt plant water transport and root development. While primarily a plant biology review, the inclusion of microplastics as a recognized abiotic stressor for trees reflects growing awareness that plastic pollution affects terrestrial ecosystems and the plants within them.
Uptake and physiological impacts of nanoplastics in trees with divergent water use strategies
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Researchers studied how nanoplastics are taken up by tree roots and whether this uptake affects tree health and function. They found that trees did absorb nanoplastics through their root systems, and the particles caused oxidative stress and reduced photosynthetic capacity. The study suggests that plastic pollution in soil could impair the functioning of trees, which play a critical role in carbon sequestration and ecosystem health.
Perspective Chapter: Plant Abiotic Stress Factors – Current Challenges of Last Decades and Future Threats
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This review examines major abiotic stress factors affecting plants — including drought, waterlogging, extreme temperatures, heavy metals, and pollutants — with a focus on molecular-level effects and emerging threats from microplastics, nanoplastics, and nanoparticles. The authors evaluate current understanding of plant stress responses and highlight micro- and nanoplastics as novel stressors introduced by rapid industrialisation that plants have not encountered through evolutionary history.
Microplastics as emerging stressors in plants: biochemical and metabolic responses
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This review examines how microplastics act as environmental stressors in plants, disrupting biochemical and metabolic processes including photosynthesis, antioxidant defenses, and nutrient uptake, with effects varying by polymer type, particle size, and concentration.
Beyond Climate: A Cambium-Centred Synthesis of Anthropogenic Drivers of Wood Formation in Urban Trees
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This review paper looks at how city life—things like pollution, road salt, artificial light at night, and even microplastics in the soil—affects how trees grow their wood, not just weather and climate. Understanding this matters because urban trees under constant stress may become weaker or less resilient over time, which affects their ability to cool our neighborhoods, clean the air we breathe, and support the leafy green spaces linked to better mental and physical health. While the microplastics angle is still an emerging area with limited direct evidence, it's a signal that pollution's reach into the natural systems we rely on may be broader than we realized.
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