Climate change is causing soil salinization, resulting in crop losses throughout the world. The ability of plants to tolerate salt stress is determined by multiple biochemical and molecular pathways. Here we discuss physiological, biochemical, and cellular modulations in plants in response to salt stress. Knowledge of these modulations can assist in assessing salt tolerance potential and the mechanisms underlying salinity tolerance in plants. Salinity-induced cellular damage is highly correlated with generation of reactive oxygen species, ionic imbalance, osmotic damage, and reduced relative water content. Accelerated antioxidant activities and osmotic adjustment by the formation of organic and inorganic osmolytes are significant and effective salinity tolerance mechanisms for crop plants. In addition, polyamines improve salt tolerance by regulating various physiological mechanisms, including rhizogenesis, somatic embryogenesis, maintenance of cell pH, and ionic homeostasis. This research project focuses on three strategies to augment salinity tolerance capacity in agricultural crops: salinity-induced alterations in signaling pathways; signaling of phytohormones, ion channels, and biosensors; and expression of ion transporter genes in crop plants (especially in comparison to halophytes).

The recent increased market demand for locally grown produce is generating interest in the application of techniques developed for controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to urban agriculture (UA). Controlled environments have great potential to revolutionize urban food systems, as they offer unique opportunities for year-round production, optimizing resource-use efficiency, and for helping to overcome significant challenges associated with the high costs of production in urban settings. For urban growers to benefit from CEA, results from studies evaluating the application of controlled environments for commercial food production should be considered. This review includes a discussion of current and potential applications of CEA for UA, references discussing appropriate methods for selecting and controlling the physical plant production environment, resource management strategies, considerations to improve economic viability, opportunities to address food safety concerns, and the potential social benefits from applying CEA techniques to UA. Author’s viewpoints about the future of CEA for urban food production are presented at the end of this review.

Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is paving the way to increase crop production efficiency with electric lamps. Users can select specific wavelengths to elicit targeted photomorphogenic, biochemical, or physiological plants responses. In addition, LEDs can help control the seasonality of flowering plants to accurately schedule uniform flowering based on predetermined market dates. Research has shown that the monochromatic nature of LEDs can help prevent physiological disorders that are common in indoor environments, and help reduce incidence of pest and disease pressure in agriculture, which could ultimately increase crop production efficiency by preventing crop losses. Furthermore, a significant attribute of LED technology is the opportunity to reduce energy costs associated with electric lighting. Studies have shown that by increasing canopy photon capture efficiency and/or precisely controlling light output in response to the environment or to certain physiological parameters, energy efficiency and plant productivity can be optimized with LEDs. Future opportunities with LED lighting include the expansion of the vertical farming industry, applications for space-based plant growth systems, and potential solutions to support off-grid agriculture.

The objective of this study was to characterize growth, water-use efficiency (WUE), stomatal conductance (g_s), SPAD index values, and shoot nitrogen uptake of two lettuce cultivars grown under different percentages of blue and red light. The treatments evaluated were 100% red; 7% blue + 93% red; 26% blue + 74% red; 42% blue + 58% red; 66% blue + 34% red; and 100% blue. Broad-spectrum (19% blue, 43% green, and 38% red) light was used to observe the effects of wavelength interactions. All of the treatments provided an average daily light integral (DLI) of 17.5 mol·m^‒2·d^‒1 (270 ± 5 µmol·m^‒2·s^‒1 over an 18-h photoperiod). The experiment was replicated three times over time; each terminated 21 days after treatment initiation. Leaf area, specific leaf area (SLA), and SPAD index had a similar response in that all of the parameters increased with up to 66% blue light, and slightly decreased or remained constant with 100% blue light. In contrast, leaf number, shoot dry mass, and WUE generally decreased in response to blue light. Conversely, for every 10% increase in blue light, g_s increased by 10 mmol·m^‒2·s^‒1. Nitrogen uptake was unaffected by light quality. Our findings indicate that when grown under different blue and red photon flux ratios, the WUE of lettuce significantly decreases under higher blue light, which could be attributed to a reduction in plant growth (leaf number and dry mass), and an increase in g_s. However, green light within broad-spectrum lamps might counteract blue-light mediated effects on g_s and WUE in lettuce.

Seedlings of six tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) cultivars (‘Maxifort’, ‘Komeett’, ‘Success’, ‘Felicity’, ‘Sheva Sheva’, and ‘Liberty’) were grown monthly for 2-week treatment periods to determine photomorphogenic and developmental responses to different light-quality treatments from supplemental lighting (SL) across changing solar daily light integrals (DLIs). Seedlings were grown in a glass-glazed greenhouse at a midnorth latitude (lat. 40° N, long. 86° W) under one of five lighting treatments: natural solar light only (control), natural + SL from a 100-W high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamp, or natural + SL from arrays of red and blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using 80% red + 20% blue, 95% red + 5% blue, or 100% red. Varying solar DLI occurred naturally for all treatments, whereas constant DLI of 5.1 mol·m ⁻² ·d ⁻¹ was provided for all SL treatments. Supplemental lighting increased hypocotyl diameter, epicotyl length, shoot dry weight, leaf number, and leaf expansion relative to the control, whereas hypocotyl elongation decreased when SL was applied. For all cultivars tested, the combination of red and blue in SL typically increased growth of tomato seedlings. These results indicate that blue light in SL has potential to increase overall seedling growth compared with blue-deficient LED SL treatments in overcast, variable-DLI climates.