Stress ecology

See also Ecological productivity Ecosystem Eutrophication Stress, ecological. 

The model presented in this chapter shows that theories on, for instance, density dependence, life cycles, and movement patterns developed in the field of ecology can be applied in the risk assessment of chemicals. It therefore also offers an example of stress ecology, that is, ecology into which a stress element is integrated. Risk assessment of pesticides is currently merely based on determining the sensitivity of organisms, while the results of this model show that life cycle characteristics might be... 

To conclude it must be stressed that recent work has directed attention to the interplay between different microbial species in most of the corrosion effects described. Microbial corrosion is therefore one special instance of the rapidly developing field of Microbial Ecology. ... 

Contemporary forest declines were initiated about 1950-1960, virtually simultaneously throughout the industrial world at the same time as damage to aquatic systems and structures became apparent. A broad array of natural and anthropogenic stresses have been identified as components of a complex web of primary causal factors that vary in time and space, interact among each other, affect various plant growth and development systems and may result in the death of trees in mountainous ecosystems. As these ecosystems decline, the alterations in forest ecology, independent of the initial causal complex, become themselves additional stress factor complexes leading to further alterations. 

The strain resulting from a particular stress is formally quantified by a dimensional change, often in the length of the material under stress. Strain may be readily converted into a measure of the reduction of plant productivity, a more generally applicable strain for agriculture and ecology. 

The response of productivity to stress (Fig. 5) has the same form as the strain response (Fig. 1) and emphasises the major concern of agriculture and ecology in defining and (usually) reducing the plastic residual strain, the permanent productivity reduction. 

Boot, R., Raynal, D.J. Grime, J.P. (1986). A comparative study of the influence of drought stress on flowering in Urtica dioica and U. urens. Journal of Ecology, 74, 485-95. 

Ludlow, M.M. Powles, S.B. (1988). Effects of photoinhibition induced by water stress of growth and yield of grain sorghum. In Ecology of Photosynthesis in Sun and Shade, ed. J.R. Evans, S. von Caemmerer and W.W. Adams III, pp. 179-94. Melbourne CSIRO. 

Lowe SE, MK Jain, JG Zeikus (1993) Biology, ecology, and biotechnological applications of anaerobic bacteria adapted to environmental stresses in temperature, pH, salinity, or substrates. Microbiol Rev 57 451-509. 

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