Responsesand Resistance Mechanisms of Tea Plants to Stresses – A Review

Global warming has broughtabout an ever-increasing stress seriously impacting the physiology andproduction of one of the major economic crops in China, Camellia sinensis.Consequently, research to further understand the stress responses and resistancemechanisms of tea plants for improved resource protection has become urgentlyneeded. This article reviews recently published domestic and foreign literaturerelated to the plant physiology and methods for the resistance enhancement. Thehazardous stresses of drought, waterlogging, high or low temperature exposure, salt,NPK deficiency, and heavy metal pollutants on the plant growth are discussed. Approachesbased on the self-regulations on growth and development, osmosis, metabolism, andothers by the plants to enhance the resistance to various stresses are presented.