Detecting the Impact of Drought on Plants with user-friendly and Inexpensive Techniques

Feb 23, 2023

Climate change is aggravating the impact of droughts on all plant ecosystems worldwide. Although new tools have been developed to detect and assess drought stress in plants—transcriptomic or metabolomic technologies, etc.—they are still difficult to apply in natural ecosystems, especially in remote areas and developing countries.

Now, a study published in the journal Trends in Plant Science presents a set of techniques that enable researchers to detect and monitor drought stress in plants in a cheap, easy and quick way. The authors of the study are the experts Sergi Munné-Bosch and Sabina Villadangos, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute for Research on Biodiversity (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.

Fighting the impact of drought on plants

The techniques available to detect and monitor the effects of drought stress in plants range from very simple and inexpensive measures (growth or relative water content analysis) to more complex and expensive approaches (omics technologies).

UB professor Sergi Munné-Bosch, professor in the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences, explains that these innovative technologies "have provided new opportunities to detect and monitor drought stress, but their cost generates inequalities around the world."

"Unfortunately, today the whole world is affected by the lack of water resources, especially in the context of the current climate change we are experiencing. And, unfortunately, countries with fewer economic resources are no exception. It should be borne in mind that most of the poorest countries are in Africa, which is also home to the world's largest arid and sub-arid regions."

Laboratories with basic equipment

The study responds to the need to establish effective and low-cost protocols to easily detect and study how droughts affect plants. Specifically, the authors present a battery of very accessible techniques that can be applied with basic laboratory equipment: precision balance, microscope, centrifuge, spectrophotometer, oven, camera and computer.

These laboratories could analyze different parameters on growth rates, leaf water content, pigments and leaf viability using the tetrazolium test, an organic heterocyclic compound that has traditionally been used in plant physiology studies.

"With these indicators, we can get a complete picture of which species are best adapted to a particular climate, or how a given crop responds to changing conditions in a given region in the current context of climate change," says Munné-Bosch.

"All these measures are easy to conduct. In addition, a specialized team can be assembled in a very short time to develop measures quickly and efficiently. And they can be implemented at a very low cost, so they are viable approaches worldwide," says the researcher.

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Video: From Conventional to Regenerative: Will Groeneveld’s Journey Back to the Land

"You realize you've got a pretty finite number of years to do this. If you ever want to try something new, you better do it."

That mindset helped Will Groeneveld take a bold turn on his Alberta grain farm. A lifelong farmer, Will had never heard of regenerative agriculture until 2018, when he attended a seminar by Kevin Elmy that shifted his worldview. What began as curiosity quickly turned into a deep exploration of how biology—not just chemistry—shapes the health of our soils, crops and ecosystems.

In this video, Will candidly reflects on his family’s farming history, how the operation evolved from a traditional mixed farm to grain-only, and how the desire to improve the land pushed him to invite livestock back into the rotation—without owning a single cow.

Today, through creative partnerships and a commitment to the five principles of regenerative agriculture, Will is reintroducing diversity, building soil health and extending living roots in the ground for as much of the year as possible. Whether it’s through intercropping, zero tillage (which he’s practiced since the 1980s) or managing forage for visiting cattle, Will’s approach is a testament to continuous learning and a willingness to challenge old norms.

Will is a participant in the Regenerative Agriculture Lab (RAL), a social innovation process bringing together producers, researchers, retailers and others to co-create a resilient regenerative agriculture system in Alberta. His story highlights both the potential and humility required to farm with nature, not against it.