Jose Dale L.

Viacrucis III
2014 – 36709
BOT 132
Assignment

Different External Stimuli Affecting Growth and Development of Plants

1. Light

Light is essential for photosynthesis. Absence or little presence of light will result to plants
with long and weak stems, and small, pale leaves. This condition is called as etiolation symptom.
Moreover, enough light condition will produce plants with strong stem, and developed, green
leaves. Furthermore, the length of light period has strong influence on plant growth and
development. This response of plants is called photoperiodism.

2. Gravity

Plant’s growth response to gravity is called gravitropism. In NASA’s space biology

experiments, it was observed that plants which were grown in different gravity levels tend to have
alterations in their compositions. An example is that the compounds which control flavor is altered
in hypergravity conditions, resulting in a plant with a different taste. Moreover, seeds produced at
different gravity levels have different nutritional qualities compared to seeds produced on Earth
(Jones, 2009).

3. Water

Too much water in the soil would cause rotting in the roots of the plant, resulting in a less
nutrient uptake from the soil. Furthermore, insufficient available water would hinder the
translocation of nutrients from the soil to the plant. The key to healthy plant growth is proper
balance of water.
 4. Temperature

Plant responses to temperature differ among crop species. However in general, node and leaf
appearance rate increases as temperatures rise to the species optimum level. Moreover, this
vegetative development usually has a higher optimum temperature than reproductive development
or the development of flowers and fruits (Hatfield and Prueger, 2015)

Moreover, an analysis by Schlenker and Roberts (2009) indicated yield growth for corn,
soybean, and cotton would gradually increase with temperatures up to 29°C to 32°C and then
sharply decrease with temperature increases beyond this threshold.

5. Wind

Wind direction and velocity have significant effect on crop growth. Wind increases the
turbulence in atmosphere, thus increasing the supply of carbon dioxide to the plants resulting in
greater photosynthesis rates. Wind also increases ethylene production in barley and rice (TNAU
Agritech Portal, n.d.)

6. Sound waves

Studies showed that at specific frequencies and intensities, sound waves have significant
effects on a variety of plant activities especially gene expression. For example, it increases the
synthesis of RNA content. However, high frequency and intensity can be harmful to the growth
and development of plants (Chowdhury et al., 2014)

7. Nutrients

Increase in the size of plant organs and their correct functioning is ultimately dependent upon
an appropriate availability of essential nutrients. Moreover, the extent to which growth processes
are dependent upon the current uptake of externally available nutrient will depend upon the
amounts and availability of stored nutrients and the extent to which recycling occurs within the
plant (McDonald, 1994).
 8. Electromagnetic Radiation

Long-term exposure of plants to Wi-Fi radiation resulted to different changes in discoloration

and vitality. It could cause premature withering and less dense vegetation to exposed plants
(Liptai et al., 2017)

References:

Chowdhury, M.E., Lim, H. and Bae, H., 2014. Update on the effects of sound wave on
plants. Research in Plant Disease, 20(1), pp.1-7.

Hatfield, J.L. and Prueger, J.H., 2015. Temperature extremes: effect on plant growth and
development. Weather and climate extremes, 10, pp.4-10.

Jones, S.F. 2009. The effect of gravity on plant growth and development. UConn Today.
https://today.uconn.edu/2009/08/the-effects-of-gravity-on-plant-growth-and-development/

Liptai, P., Dolník, B. and Gumanová, V., 2017. EFFECT OF WI-FI RADIATION ON SEED
GERMINATION AND PLANT GROWTH-EXPERIMENT. Annals of the Faculty of
Engineering Hunedoara, 15(1), p.109.

McDonald, A.J.S., 1994. Nutrient supply and plant growth. In Physiology, Growth and
Development of Plants in Culture (pp. 47-57). Springer, Dordrecht.

Schlenker, W. and Roberts, M.J., 2009. Nonlinear temperature effects indicate severe damages to
US crop yields under climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences, 106(37),
pp.15594-15598.

TNAU Agritech Portal. n.d. Agrometeorology: wind and plant growth.

http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/agriculture/agri_agrometeorology_wind.html