High Cd concentrations and excess Zn often interfere with mineral nutrients uptake by ion competition as well as affecting membrane permeability (Siedleska, 1995). The induced changes in cell ion homeostasis generally provoke different physiological disorders resulting finally in plant growth inhibition. It has been suggested that Cd and Zn have a similar mode of toxic action (Breckle, 1991; Cl...

A host of nutrients are needed by cattle to support functions associated with life, and to grow, reproduce, and nourish their offspring (i.e., produce milk). A vast amount of resources have been expended to quantify the amounts of specific nutrients needed to perform these function so that economically efficient diets can be formulated. Feeding diets that provide adequate, but not excessive, am...

Thinning of forest stands is widely carried out to minimize the slowing of growth of individual stems that follows from increasing competition among trees as they become bigger. After thinning, there is an increase in the growth rate of remaining trees because of an increase in the availability of resources per tree. Often, there is also an increase in foliar efficiency (biomass increase/foliag...

a host of nutrients are needed by cattle to support functions associated with life, and to grow, reproduce, and nourish their offspring (i.e., produce milk). a vast amount of resources have been expended to quantify the amounts of specific nutrients needed to perform these function so that economically efficient diets can be formulated. feeding diets that provide adequate, but not excessive, am...

Mineral nutrient limitation seems to stimulate phytoplankton excretion of extracellular organic carbon (EOC). Bacterial growth on EOC requires additional uptake of mineral nutrients. A paradoxical situation is thereby created: algae stressed by lack of mineral nutrients respond in a manner whereby they stimulate their competitors for the lacking nutrients. To investigate this paradoxical ecolog...

The major "benefit" alleged to accrue from transpiration (the evaporative loss of water from plant surfaces) is that it is essential for the long-distance transport of mineral ions, but the possible interrelation between these two processes has rarely been tested. Transpiration was experimentally dissociated from mineral supply by growing sunflowers (Helianthus anuus) in hydroculture and provid...

into a variety of important compounds with structural and physiological roles in plants. We summarize how plant nutrients are linked to many metabolic pathways, plant hormones and other biological processes. We also focus on nutrient uptake, describing plant–microbe interactions, plant exudates, root architecture, transporters and their applications. Plants need to survive in soils with mineral...

The field of soil fertility deals mainly with the mineral nutrition of plants in which both the supplying power of the soil and the ability of the plant to absorb nutrients, are of importance. The soil may be considered as. the rooting medium which provides water and mineral nutrients necessary for plant growth. Ionic equilibria play a fundamental role in fertility relationships because they go...

Around 60% of cultivated soils worldwide have plant-growth-limiting problems caused by mineral nutrient deficiencies and toxicities. Therefore, improving the mineral nutritional status of plants under marginal environmental conditions is of great importance for maintenance of crop productivity. In most cases plants growing under marginal environmental conditions (e.g. salinity, low and high tem...

Plants frequently have to cope with environments with sub-optimal mineral nutrient availability. Therefore they need to constantly sense changes of ion concentrations in their environment. Nutrient availabilities and needs have to be tightly coordinated between organs to ensure a balance between uptake and demand for metabolism, growth, reproduction, and defense reactions. To this end informati...