Mineral Nutrition and Plant Hydraulics in Agricultural Crops Under Drought Stress

Drought is among the most damaging abiotic stresses limiting global crop productivity, and its frequency and severity are expected to increase with ongoing climate change. Crop performance under water deficit relies on the coordinated regulation of water relations, carbon assimilation, and mineral nutrition. Plant hydraulics and photosynthetic responses to drought have been extensively studied, but the role of nutrient availability and ion homeostasis in shaping these responses is still poorly understood and rarely examined alongside hydraulic function across biological scales.Mineral nutrients influence stomatal aperture, root and leaf hydraulic conductance, osmotic adjustment, and mesophyll diffusion conductance, all of which determine how efficiently crops use available water and sustain carbon gain under stress. One particularly underexplored aspect concerns the dual role of enhanced nutrient supply: while improving leaf area, photosynthetic capacity, and yield potential, higher nutrient availability may also raise transpirational demand, narrow hydraulic safety margins, and increase the risk of hydraulic failure under drought. Resolving this nutritional growth-safety trade-off matters for both crop management and breeding programs targeting water-limited environments.This Research Topic invites contributions that advance our understanding of how mineral nutrients and ionic balance regulate stomatal behavior, plant hydraulic function, water-use efficiency (WUE), and drought resilience in agricultural crops. Studies that connect multiple levels of biological organization, from ion transport and aquaporin regulation at the molecular level to whole-plant water relations and field performance, are especially welcome.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:• Nutrient availability and ion homeostasis as regulators of stomatal behavior and water-use efficiency in drought-stressed crops• Ion transport mechanisms linking osmotic adjustment, hydraulic function, and carbon assimilation under water deficit• Effects of enhanced mineral nutrition on transpirational demand, hydraulic safety margins, and the risk of hydraulic dysfunction in crops• Root and leaf hydraulic conductance responses to changes in nutrient supply and ionic balance• Nutrient-water interactions and their consequences for photosynthetic performance and drought resilience in agricultural crops• Carbon isotope composition as an integrative indicator of water-use efficiency and stomatal behavior under varying nutrient regimes• Physiological, biochemical, isotopic, and molecular indicators of nutrition-hydraulics-photosynthesis coordination under drought Topic editors: Nikolas Souza Mateus, JOSE LAVRES JUNIOR, Flávio Henrique Silveira Rabêlo Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80969/mineral-nutrition-and-plant-hydraulics-in-agricultural-crops-under-drought-stress