Plant Stress Physiology: Drought Stress

A Simple Paper
Presented to
Charisse Mae R. Ibaez
Faculty of the Natural Sciences Department
School of Arts and Sciences
Ateneo de Zamboanga University
Zamboanga City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements of Botany 203
Plant Physiology
Final Examination

By
Betlee Ian T. Barraquias Jr
BS Biology III A

Plant Stress Physiology: Drought Stress

By:
Betlee Ian T. Barraquias Jr.

Chapter I: Introduction
A. Background of the Study
B. Objectives
C. Significance of the Study
D. Definition of Terms

Chapter II: Discussion and Review of Related Literature

A. Physiological Importance of Water in Plants
i. Plant Structure
ii. Plant Growth
iii. Nutrient and Mineral Medium
iv. Nutrient Uptake
v.
Fluid Movement
vi. Thermoregulation
vii. Biochemical Processes
B. Stress Physiology of Plant Water Deficiency
i. Homeostasis and Stress
ii. Adaptive Mechanisms
i. Stress Resistance
ii. Acclimation and Phenotypic Plasticity
iii. Stress Avoidance
iii. Drought Stress
iv. Effects of Drought Stress
v.
Physiological Response Mechanisms
i. Cell and Tissue Water Conservation
ii. Antioxidant Defense
iii. Hormones and Root Signaling

Chapter III: Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

Bibliography

Chapter I
Introduction
As life on earth dates back from millions of years, it has been continually subjected to
changes and stresses that disrupted its essential equilibrium. This has consequently led
to the extinctions of many life forms. However, there are some that have persisted by
means of adaptation to the changes and stresses in the environment. And one of these
most successful groups is the plants.
Plants are among the earliest biotic elements present on earth. They have faced
countless stresses such as exposure to drought, extreme temperatures, and oxidative
stresses that have insulted their essential equilibrium. This essential equilibrium, or
what we call homeostasis, is an absolute requirement for life. This ensures that
conditions are ideal for certain life processes be systematically carried out.
However, in spite of these stresses, plants have persisted as a group, and as a species.
Plants have their own coping mechanisms, or adaptations, such as stress-driven
pathways, that enable them to live through such stresses. Furthermore, these
adaptations may have given them a degree of resistance against these stresses
through the process of evolution. This, in turn, made them an even more persistent
species that lives on up to today.
A branch of science, botany, and its sub-discipline, plant physiology, studies about
plants and their mechanisms on how they function. Another narrower sub-discipline,
plant stress physiology, studies about the response of plants that are subjected to
physiological stresses. One of the most common plant stresses is droughts, or water
shortages.
Water is an absolute requirement for plant life. It is inarguably important as it serves
many fundamental functions in plant processes. Water serves as a solvent or a medium
through which nutrients and hormones are channeled throughout the plant. Water
constitutes more than ninety percent of the weight of plants and also plays a key role in
maintaining plant cell turgidity. Furthermore, water is also a critical element that donates
an electron and a proton for photosynthetic reactions to occur (Hasegawa, & Jenks,
2005; Khanna, 2012; Lisar, et. al., 2012; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011). Water also plays a role
in the mechanism of fluid channeling throughout the plant. And it also serves a
thermoregulatory function that prevents overheating that disrupts homeostasis by
straying away to the stability-driving optimal temperature (Ewers, n.d.; Khanna, 2012;
Plants and Soil Sciences e-library, n.d.; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).

With the functions of water, its deficiency, indeed, leads to the disruption of plant
homeostasis that may lead to plant death. However, water deficiency also leads to
cascade of effects that further increase the adverse influence of such stress (Farooq,
2008; Hasegawa & Jenks, 2005; Lisar, et. al., 2012; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011). So, in this
connection, as this paper is intended to discuss about plant stress physiology, it seeks
to specifically tackle about the stress physiology of drought stress and water deficiency
in plants. The paper shall proceed by focusing on:
1. the discussion of the physiological importance of water to plants;
2. the basic concepts of plant stress physiology:
a. Homeostasis;
b. Adaptive Mechanisms;
c. Physiological Response Mechanisms;
3. the discussion of the effects of water deficiency;

Significance of the Study

Plants, in nature, continually face environmental stresses throughout their lives. One of
the most common stresses brought about by the environment is drought, or water
shortage. Plants have evolved as a group, and as a species to persist through these
environmental stresses. Considering the nature of plants, having to continually lose
water due to natural mechanisms (e.g. fluid movement, photosynthesis), the paper
seeks to understand these mechanisms that help them adapt to such detrimental and
stressful situations. This study proves relevant to the course, plant physiology, as it,
obviously, studies a branch of the subject, plant stress physiology.

Definition of Terms
Abiotic Stress: Stress induced by the non-living environment (e.g. light, temperature,
water shortage) (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Avoidance: The action of making void, or of having no effect (Lisar, et. al., 2012).
Biological Stress: Environmental modulation of homeostasis.
Biotic Stress: Stress induced by biotic elements (e.g. insects, infections) (Vince, &
Zoltan, 2011).
Dehydration: The loss of water from a cell. Plant cells dehydrate during drought of water
deficit (Lisar, et. al., 2012).

Drought Avoidance: The avoidance of drought impact by utilizing adaptations that limit
the perception of water deficit by the protoplasm (Lisar, et. al., 2012).
Drought Tolerance: The ability to withstand suboptimal water availability by utilizing
adaptations that permit metabolism to occur at low water potential (Lisar, et. al., 2012).
Drought: The limitation of water over a prolonged period of time. It denotes the loss of
water from plant tissues and cells (Lisar, et. al., 2012).
Phenotypic plasticity: The capacity of a single genotype to exhibit variable phenotypes
in different environments is common in insects and is often highly adaptive (Whitman, &
Agrawal, n.d.).
Plant Stress: Adverse effect on plant physiology induced upon by a sudden transition
from optimal to suboptimal condition that disrupts homeostasis (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Scavenging: is the deactivation of certain substances by the addition or reaction of
another chemical substance (Campbell, et. al. 2008).
Strain: Changes or damages as a consequence of a stress or difficulty (Beck, et. al.,
2005).
Stress: A difficulty such as water deficiency (Beck, et. al., 2005)
Tolerance: The ability to withstand some particular environmental condition (Lisar, et.
al., 2012).
Turgor: Is the normal state of turgidity and tension in living cells (Encyclopedia
Britannica, n.d.).
Water Potential: It is the measure of the potential energy in water as well as the
difference between the potential in a given water sample and pure water (Boundless,
2014).

Chapter II
Review of Related Literature and Discussions
Physiological Importance of Water in Plants
The physiological importance of water in plants is best appreciated by looking into the
roles that water play in various plant systems. Water plays a part in many fundamental
processes that occur in plants, while also being the main constituent of plant structure.

Plant Structure
Plants are made up of more than ninety percent of water. Each individual plant cell is
composed of 80 to 90 percent of water contained within its central vacuole. This large
composition of water in plant cell provides pressure to the cell that gives the cell its
turgidity, which would in turn support the plant to stand erect (Ferguson, 1959; Khanna,
2012; Whiting, 2014).

Plant Growth
As growth in plants occurs, water enters the cell in response to an osmotic driving force
and pressure. Though proteins, carbohydrates, and other metabolites are deposited
during growth, water uptake makes for most of the increase in cell volume, and hence,
growth (University of California, n.d.).

Nutrient and Mineral Medium

Water serves as a solvent for plant nutrients and minerals. Plants, normally, cannot
absorb these nutrients and minerals, and water is needed to dissolve them so to be able
for them to be channeled throughout the plant (Khanna, 2012).

Nutrient Uptake
Furthermore, water also plays a role in mineral nutrient uptake that occurs on the roots.
As plants cannot normally absorb raw, dry mineral nutrients, water is needed for these
to be dissolved and able to be transported to the plant through the epidermis of the
roots (Ferguson, 1959; Kimbal, 2013).

Fluid Movement
Fluid movement within the plant is described by the cohesion-tension theory. According
to this theory, the driving force of fluid movement is transpiration. It details that
transpiration and water uptake in plants work in tandem to produce fluid movement
within the plant (Ewers, n.d.; Lisar, et. al., 2012).
Water molecules cohere and are pulled up in the plant by the tension, or by a pulling
force that is exerted by transpiration on the leaf surface. Transpiration occurs as a result
of concentration gradients (molecules tend to move from higher concentrations to lower
concentrations). Concentration of water molecules in the atmosphere tends to be less
than the concentration of water molecules in the leaves of plants. This concomitantly
drives transpiration where water moves from the leaves of the plant to the environment.
This would further cause cascading effects on the stem, and roots, where water tends to
move from the stem to the leaves, roots to the stem, and soil to the roots (Ewers, n.d.;
Lisar, et. al., 2012).

Thermoregulation
Water plays, yet, another significant role in plants, thermoregulation. Through
transpiration, plants release water vapors to regulate temperature. An optimal
temperature is necessary for the functionality of many biomolecules since temperature
is a factor for proper configurations of certain molecules (e.g. proteins and enzymes).
Thermoregulation, then, contributes to the maintenance of the correct configurations of
biomolecules that consequently allow them to work systematically for the overall
homeostatic condition of plants (Ferguson, 1959; Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,
n.d.).

Biochemical Processes
An aqueous environment is necessary for the functionality of many important
biomolecules. Lipids, proteins, and enzymes use water as a medium to interact with
other substances for reaction. Water also plays a role in buffering pH, where such
affects the configuration and functionality of biomolecules (Ferguson, 1959).
Aside from waters role in the functionality of biomolecules, water also serves as a basic
material for most metabolic or biochemical reactions in the plant system. One example
is photosynthesis where water is being utilized as the primary electron and proton donor
for the photosynthetic process to be carried out (Ferguson, 1959).

Stress Physiology of Plant Water Deficiency

As water is inarguably important and vital to plant life, another equally important
element is the maintenance of the structural organization of plants. In order for plant life
to continue and persist, it must maintain its structural organization for essential
processes to be able to systematically carried out. The structural organization is
retained through the maintenance of favorable, optimal conditions that allow for
essential processes to proceed. This state of maintaining a stable and optimal condition
is referred as homeostasis (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).

Homeostasis and Stress

Homeostasis and stress are two opposing concepts. Plants in nature continually face
environmental stresses that concomitantly disrupt homeostasis as stresses implicate
adverse physiological effects (Ahmad Anjum, et. al., 2011; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Plant stress can be divided into two primary categories: Abiotic, and biotic stresses;
abiotic stress, as its name suggests, is induced by physical and chemical factors such
as light, temperature, and water limitations, while the latter is induced by other life forms
such as insects and/or infections by bacteria (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Moreover, abiotic stress may induce primary and secondary effects on plants. A primary
effect causes a cascade of physiological changes that may give rise to secondary
effects. A primary effect, such as water deficiency affects various physical and
biochemical properties of cells. These influences, usually detrimental, give rise to
secondary effects such as reduced metabolic activity, ion cytotoxicity, and production of
toxic chemicals (Lisar, et. al., 2012; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Plants may be strained by a stress that adversely affects overall plant functionality by
disrupting normal physiological processes that occur under optimal conditions (Vince, &
Zoltan, 2011). However, the effects of strains vary and depend on certain factors such
as strain severity and duration (Beck, et. al., 2005; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
The effect of environmental stress on plant survival revolves around the concepts of
avoidance, resistance, and susceptibility. Plant survival according to stress avoidance
can be illustrated by the life cycle of ephemeral plants. Ephemeral plants complete their
life cycles during periods of adequate moisture and form dormant seeds before the
onset of dry seasons. This allows them, in spite of stress exposure, to avoid strain
impact and survive in the form of dormant seeds. Stress resistance, on the other hand,
is achieved through tolerance to stress. This is accomplished by the plants ability to
adapt and tune its physiological processes to be able to induce homeostatic conditions

under sub optimal circumstances. While stress avoidance, and resistance ultimately
leads to plant survival, stress susceptibility leads to plant death. This occurs when the
stress strains the plant to a degree of beyond repair or irreversibility (Farooq, et. al.,
2009; Lisar, et. al., 2012; Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).

Adaptive Mechanisms
As a successful groups and species, plants have developed various adaptations against
environmental stresses. The two main general concepts under the adaptive
mechanisms of plant are resistance or tolerance, and avoidance.

Stress Resistance
Stress resistance or tolerance can be attained through various modes. Plants undergo
acclimation that allows them to operate and induce homeostatic state under sub-optimal
conditions by altering and tuning physiological processes. (Farooq, et. al., 2009; Lisar,
et. al., 2012; Vince and Zoltan, 2011).

Acclimation and Phenotypic Plasticity

Acclimation is the process by which an individual organism undergoes adjustment to a
gradual change in its environment. Acclimation results to an acclimated-homeostatic
state, where such homeostatic state is induced in sub-optimal conditions through
multiple physiological processes and changes that are integrated over time
acclimation period (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Acclimation may involve short- or long-term processes. Short-term processes are
initiated within seconds or minutes upon exposure to stress. Short-term processes may
be transient in nature, where it is detected soon, but rather disappear rapidly. Long-term
processes are less transient and exhibit long-term effects. However, these processes
overlap in time such that short-term processes serve to be the initial response to stress,
while the long-term processes are usually detected later in the acclimation process. This
indicates that the attainment of an acclimated state is a complex and time-nested
response to stresses (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
Acclimation usually involves the expression of specific genes that are associated with
stress exposure. Various plants may exhibit mechanisms where they alter their
physiologies and morphologies to shift and induce optimal conditions during stress.
These mechanisms are achieved with underlying evolutionary processes, where

favorable genes that make plants resistant to stress are conserved through natural
selection. However, these mechanisms may not involve genotypic mutation or
modifications. Certain set of genes can act to express various phenotypic expressions
according to environmental conditions. Such capacity is referred to as phenotypic
plasticity (Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).
However, though the mechanism of the exhibitions of various phenotypic expressions
without any genotypic alteration changes plant morphology, they only represent
temporary changes. Restoration of the normal environmental conditions reverses the
process and brings back the original phenotypic expression under normal conditions
(Vince, & Zoltan, 2011).

Stress Avoidance
Another mechanism that leads to plant survival under stress is avoidance. Stress
avoidance mechanisms are achieved by some groups or species of plant through their
life cycles. As cited earlier, an example would be ephemeral plants where they have a
shortened life cycle to avoid the drought stresses (Farooq, et. al., 2009; Vince, & Zoltan,
2011).
Stress avoidance can also be achieved through mechanisms that minimize strain
induction by stresses. One such mechanism is achieved through morphological
changes such as reduced stomatal conductance, decreased leaf area, and
development of extensive root/shoot ratios during drought stress (Lisar, et. al., 2012;
Turner, et. al., 2001, & Kavar, et. al., 2007, as cited in Farooq, 2009)

Drought Stress
In nature, plants are continuously exposed to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Among
these stresses, drought stress is one of the most adverse and common (Ahmad Anjum,
2011). As water plays various fundamental roles in plant life, its deficiency leads to the
impairing and disruption of whole plant system which would ultimately lead to plant
death (Hasegawa, & Jenks, 2005; Khanna, 2012; Lisar, et. al., 2012; Vince, & Zoltan,
2011). However, plants have developed various mechanisms and physiological
response pathways to maintain its structural organization intact while slowly adapting
and becoming resistant to strains induced by stress.

Effects of Drought Stress

Drought stress implicates a cascade of effects that prove detrimental to plant life. These
effects further aggravate the adverse influence of plant stress leading to growth
inhibition, reproductive failure, and ultimately, plant death (Lisar, et. al., 2012). Water
stress in plants reduces the plant cells turgidity. As a consequence, the plant will tend
to slightly wilt due to the loss of pressure that was used to be provided by water.
Furthermore, it also has its effects on plant growth; water deficiency would lead to
inhibition of growth as water uptake during growth makes up for most of the plant cell
volume. Nutrient uptake, thermoregulation, and biosynthesis of certain substances in
plants are also impaired due to water deficiency (Ferguson, 1959; Kimbal, 2013; Lisar,
et. al., 2012).
These effects brought about by drought stress are further aggravated by secondary
effects. Stomatal closure due to drought stress causes a carbon dioxide deficiency that
inhibits photosynthetic reaction. This, in turn, leads to the production, due to the
accumulated energy in the photosystems, of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that
involves hydrogen peroxide and free radicals which brings oxidative damage to
proteins, DNA, and lipids (Ahmad Anjum, 2011; Lisar, et. al. 2012).
Furthermore, as stomatal closure affects the rate of transpiration, it also has negative
effects on the uptake of mineral nutrients from the soil. As described by the cohesiontension theory, transpiration and the cohesion-tension system of water are the
underlying mechanisms of fluid movement and nutrient uptake of plants. Stomatal
closure by water stress would, then, further lead to consequences in growth and
structural integrity of plants due to malnutrition and impaired nutrient transport (Lisar, et.
al., 2012).

Physiological Response Mechanisms

Plants have developed various pathways that allow them to adapt through stresses. Cell
and tissue water conservation, antioxidation and scavenging defense system, and
hormones and root signaling have been the most important mechanisms responsible for
drought tolerance (Ahmad, Anjum, et. al., 2011; Farooq, et. al., 2009).

Cell and Tissue Water Conservation

Osmotic adjustment allows the cell to decrease osmotic potential which concomitantly
increases the gradient for water influx and maintenance of turgor. This is achieved
through the osmotic adjustment in cell wall elasticity (Farooq, et. al., 2009).

Abscisic acid, and other unidentified substances maintain high tissue water potential.
This, in turn, confers resistance to strains brought by drought stress (Turner, et. al.,
2001, as cited in Farooq, et. al., 2009). Furthermore, Ahmad Anjum, et. al. (2011), and
Morgan (1990), in Farooq, et. al. (2009), explained that osmotic adjustment is also
aided by active accumulation of solutes such as proline, sucrose, soluble
carbohydrates, and glycinebetaine in the cytoplasm. This maintains cell water balance,
minimizing the harmful effects of drought.

Antioxidant Defense
As drought stress brings about the production of reactive oxygen species that may
potentially damage cell tissues, the plants undergo a specific pathway that produces
antioxidants and other scavenging substances that work against the reactive
species(Gong, et. al., 2005, as cited in Farooq, et. al., 2009; Hasegawa, & Jenks,
2005).
Antioxidants compose of substances of both non-enzymatic and enzymatic nature
(Gong, et. al., 2005, as cited in Farooq, et. al., 2009; Hasegawa, & Jenks,
2005).Enzymatic components usually are involved in the breakdown of reactive oxygen
species. These antioxidant enzymes are the most efficient mechanism against oxidative
stress (Farooq, et. al., 2009). Examples under enzymatic components include
superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, and glutathione
reductase (Gong, et. al., 2005, as cited in Farooq, et. al., 2009). However, some
enzymatic components are involved in the scavenging of reactive oxygen species
(Fazeli, et. al., 2007, as cited in Farooq, et. al., 2009).Non-enzymatic components, on
the other hand, include carotenoids and various other compounds such as abietane
diterpenes, play a role in the antioxidant defense system through scavenging. (Deltoro,
et. al., 1998, as cited in Farooq, et. al., 2009).
Furthermore, oxidative damage in plant tissues are alleviated by the actions of both
enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems. Beta-carotenes, ascorbic acid,
alpha-tocopherol, reduced glutathione, and enzyme including superoxide dismutase,
peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, polyphenol oxidase, and glutathione
reductase play a role in the alleviation of oxidative damage (Hasegawa, & Jenks, 2005;
Prochazkova, et. al., 2001, as cited in Farooq, 2009).

Hormones and Root Signaling

Auxins, gibberellins, cytokinins, ethylene, and abscisic acid are the five major plant
hormones. These hormones have their roles on drought stress resistance. Under
drought stress, auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins usually decrease, while abscisic acid
and ethylene increase (Nilsen, & Orcutte, 1996, as cited in Farooq, 2009).
During drought stress, an extensive root system is an advantageous adaption to extract
water from soil layers (Ahmad Anjum, et. al., 2011; Lisar, et. al., 2012). Though the
exact effect of drought stress on roots have remained controversial, Jaleel, et. al.
(2008), as cited in Ahmad Anjum, et. al. (2011), reported an increased root growth in
Catharanthus roseus under drought stress. While Sacks, et. al. (2007), as cited in
Ahmad Anjum, et. al. (2011), reported an insubstantial inhibitory effect on root growth
under drought stress in maize (Ahmad Anjum, et. al., 2011).
As drought stress is induced upon plants, the root to shoot ratio increases since roots
are less sensitive from growth inhibition due to low water potentials (Lisar, et. al., 2012;
Wu, & Cosgrove, 2000, as cited in Ahmad Anjum, et. al., 2011). Under drought stress,
roots induce a signal cascade to the shoots that cause physiological responses that
eventually determines the level of adaptation to stress (Ahmad Anjum, et. al. 2011;
Lisar, et. al., 2012).
Abscisic acid (ABA), cytokinins, ethylene, and other unknown factors have been
identified in the root-shoot signaling. This signaling induces stomatal closure, which is a
known adaptation to limited water supply. ABA promotes the efflux of potassium ions
from the guard cells, which results to loss of turgor pressure leading to stomatal closure
(Ahmad Anjum, et. al., 2011).

Chapter III
Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

Summary
The physiological importance of water in plants can be best appreciated by turning to
the roles it plays in various plant systems. Water plays a part in many fundamental
processes such as plant growth, nutrient and mineral uptake, fluid movement,
thermoregulation, and various biochemical processes (e.g. photosynthesis) that occurs
in plants. Water also is the main constituent of plant structure, comprising eighty to
ninety percent of every individual plant cell that provides pressure that provides turgidity
to the plant which concomitantly supports the plant to stand erect.
While water is inarguably essential and vital to plant life, another equally important
element is the maintenance of the structural organization of plants. In order for plant life
to continue, it must maintain this structural organization so normal plant processes be
systematically carried out. The structural organization is retained through the
maintenance of favorable, optimal conditions that allow for essential processes to
proceed. This state of maintaining a stable and optimal condition is referred to as
homeostasis.
However, plants in nature are continually threatened by stresses that disrupt its
homeostasis. Stresses can induce strains that damage plant structure that consequently
lead to the impairment of various physiological processes. This would, in turn, adversely
affect the overall homeostatic condition of plants.
But as plants are a successful group and species, they have developed various
adaptive mechanisms that allow them to persist in spite of stress. Stress resistance, and
stress avoidance are two of the general adaptive mechanisms a plant undergoes to
survive through a stress.
While there are multiple causes of plant stress, one of the most common and adverse
environmental stress is drought stress. Drought stress is caused by water shortage.
Drought stress can cause an array of effects ranging from plant stunted growth to plant
death. But initially, drought stress brings upon a cascade of effects including reduced
turgor, production of reactive oxygen species, carbon deficiency, photosynthetic
inhibition, and mineral uptake impairment.
However, plants have developed various pathways that deal with such type of stress.
One pathway or physiological response mechanism is cell and tissue water

conservation, where it involves the maintenance of water turgor through adjustment in

cell wall elasticity and through influx and accumulation of solutes. Another physiological
response is antioxidant defense where plants produce antioxidant and scavenging
substances against reactive oxygen species that potentially harm plant proteins, DNA,
and lipids. Finally, plants also use hormone and root signaling, especially abscisic acid
to induce specific changes in the physiology and morphology (e.g. stomatal closure) of
plants for adaptation.

Conclusion
The objectives of the paper, discussion of the (1) physiological importance of water to
plants, (2) basic concepts of plant stress physiology, (a) homeostasis, (b) adaptive
mechanisms, (c) physiological response mechanisms, and (3) effects of water
deficiency, has been successfully met as evident in the summary and discussions in
Chapter II.

Recommendation/s
Considering the time given for the making of the paper, and the load of the researcher,
the researcher believes that this paper is limited as it failed to integrate certain plant
stress physiology concepts. But nevertheless, the paper has achieved its objectives in
discussing its focuses.

Terminologies
The researcher believes that there are certain terminologies on the underlying concepts
discussed on the paper that have not been integrated due to diverse literatures that
used different terminologies on referring to certain concepts. Because of this, it is
recommended that these terminologies be investigated and be integrated in case of
future improvement.

Research Integrations
The researcher wanted to integrate recent advancements regarding the subject.
However, due to lack of time and load of the researcher, the researcher only focused on
discussing the fundamentals of the stress physiology of drought stress in plants.

Therefore, for future improvements, it is recommended that these recent researches be

looked upon and integrated.

Peer Review
While the paper has met its objectives, it has not been peer reviewed. Hence, peer
review is recommended to further add credence to the paper.

Further Discussions
The researcher admits that there could be concepts that have been missed in
discussing the topic. Therefore, it is recommended that this paper be reviewed and
improved upon.

Detailed Explanations
The researcher wanted to make detailed explanations underlying physiological
phenomena. The researcher wanted to discuss the topic on many levels: organism,
organ, tissue, cellular, and molecular levels. However, due to lack of time and to the
loads of the researcher, the paper did not put much detail on each level. Therefore, it is
recommended that these details be looked into and integrated on the paper.

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