This book focuses on stress caused by the inanimate components ofthe environment associated with climatic, edaphic and physiographic factorsthat substantially limitplantgrowth andsurvival. Categoricallythese are abioticstresses, which include drought, salinity, non-optimal temperatures and poorsoil nutrition. Another stress, herbicides, is covered in this book to highlighthow plants are impacted by abiotic stress originating from anthropogenicsources. Indeed, it is an important consideration that, to some degree, the impactof abiotic stress is influenced by human activities. The book also addresses thehigh degree to which plant responses to quite diverse forms of environmentalstress are interconnected. Thus the final two chapters uniquely describe theways in which the plant utilizes and integrates many common signals andsubsequent pathways to cope with less favorable conditions. The many linkagesbetween the diverse stress responses provide ample evidence that the environ-ment impacts plant growth and development in a very fundamental way.