The study of plant responses to varied environmental stress conditions has been a central feature for plant biologists. Indian agriculture has been facing many challenges, prominent of which are land degradation due to salinization and alkalinazation, water stress and nutrient stress. In recent years, much progress has been made in understanding how stresses affect plant performance and consequently we considered it timely to examine the ecological, physiological and biochemical responses of plants to a variety of stresses with a view to identifying common principles. The book is divided into seven chapters. We hope this book will be of particular interest to research students seeking an introduction in the area of plant stress physiology. But we also trust that it will be of interest for improvisation of nursery techniques for afforestation programmes of deserts and ecological restoration of the degraded arid and semi arid areas of deserts.