Air Pollutants and the Leaf Cuticle [Paperback]

Plant leaves are covered by a thin, lipoidal, non-living membrane called the cuticle. Forming the interface between plants and the atmospheric environment, it presents an effective barrier to pollutant entry.
The book provides a comprehensive review of air pollutant effects on the cuticle and covers the following thematic areas: - Cuticular physicochemical characteristics, physiological, regulatory, and protective roles. - Effects, mechanisms, and consequences of air pollutant interaction with leaf cuticles. - Non-anthropogenic and environmental influences on the cuticle and potential of the cuticle for biomonitoring and critical levels mapping. - New developments in experimental methodology and analytical techniques.Section I - Reviews.- Plant Cuticles: Physicochemical Characteristics and Biosynthesis.- Modelling Pollutant Deposition to Vegetation: Scaling Down from the Canopy to the Biochemical Level.- Air Pollutants and Plant Cuticles: Mechanisms of Gas and Water Transport, and Effects on Water Permeability.- Ion Transport across Leaf Cuticles: Concepts and Mechanisms.- Effects of Air Pollutants on Epicuticular Wax Chemical Composition.- Effects of Air Pollutants on Epicuticular Wax Structure.- Leaf Wettability as a Measure of Air Pollution Effects.- Air Pollutants and the Cuticle: Implications for Plant Physiology.- Cuticular Characteristics in the Detection of Plant Stress Due to Air Pollution  New Problems in the Use of These Cuticular Characteristics.- Evaluation of Pollutant Critical Levels from Leaf Surface Characteristics.- New Analytical Techniques for Cuticle Chemical Analysis.- Leaf Cuticles as Mediators of Environmental Influences: New Developments in the Use of Isolated Cuticles.- Section II - New Methods and Contributions.- The Effect of the Environment on the Structure, Quantity and Composition of Spruce Needle Wax.- Effect of Ozone and Elevated Carbon Dioxide on Cuticular Membrane Ultrastructure of Yellow Poplar (Liriodendrontulipifera).l3›