Besides classical stressors, which are related also to the course of this year’s weather, the conference was focused on the influence of toxic substances on plants. In addition to abiotic stressors, plants are affected by biotic factors, not only by anthropogenic influences. The contributions of the conference addressed the issues of impact of diseases and pests on plants, including the discovery of new species of pathogenic organisms.
„The stress conference“ was held in the city of Zvolen on September 4-6, 2018. Almost 70 specialists from Czech and Slovak universities, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and research institutes, representing various scientific fields, took part in it. Exploring plant stressors is a horizontal issue, as was shown. The authors of lectures and posters have reported, that besides new knowledge they gained while making research, many gaps in the present state of knowledge were identified. The gaps predominantly concerned the understanding mechanisms of ecological and environmental factors affecting properties of plants. Many authors also brought their views how to apply new scientific results in forestry and agricultural practices.

The lectures during the conference involved topics such as phenological data of field crops from Czech Hydrometeorological Institute phenology network and possibility of their use, forest tree species and stands decline from the view of physiology and pathophysiology, impact of alakaline and metallic contamination on soil and vegetation in the emmision field of magnesium factory, heavy metals in common nettle Urtica dioica and small balsam Impatiens parviflora from locations in Malé Karpaty Mountains loaded with mining activity, long-term maintenance of hybrid firs embryogenic tissues under in vitro conditions, response of cultivated cereals on stress factors, production of high quality forage in dry conditions, what are our options?, physiological characteristics of hops grown in organic agriculture, functional analysis of the cytoskeleton in the parasite-host interaction, phenotypic plasticity of stomata and leaf parameters of Fagus sylvatica, changes of gas exchange by juvenile plants of opium poppy Papaver somniferum L. under low temperature stress, alternative approach to the fight against drought, and innovation of technology in growing grasses for seed. Very interesting were the contributions that dealt with the issue of limiting the negative impact of the drought on the field crops and forest tree species. Options are considered, e.g. using soil bacteria,
growth promoters, cultivation technology change, etc.

Among poster presentations, the topics such as pesticides and trees of riparian corridors: biotransformation of a triazole fungicide, pharmaceuticals-induced changes in root growth and morphology in maize and pea plants, enzymatic antioxidant defence machinery in Arabidopsis thaliana in response to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs contamination attracted a great deal attention of conference participants.
During the ceremony, following the conference opening by RNDr. Ľubica Ditmarová, PhD., Director of the Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, in. i., RNDr. Milan Bolvanský, CSc. from the Institute of Forest Ecology SAS, in. i. was awarded a Fándly medal of the Slovak Society of Agricultural, Forestry, Food and Veterinary Sciences to the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava for his long-year efforts in the field of genetics and breeding of woody plants. Organisers of the just ended 18th conference, i.e., doc. Ing. František Hnilička, PhD. from the Czech University of Life Science Prague and Ing. Margita Kuklová, CSc. from the Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, in. i., have already began to prepare future 19th conference. The first step will be to draw up a core theme. Please note that the core theme of the current conference was the impact of global climate change on agricultural and forest production. The next conference will take place in Prague in mid-September 2019. An electronic version of the proceedings of scientific articles of the conference entitled Influence of Abiotic and Biotic Stresses on Properties of Plants 2018, as well as photos of the event will be accessible here soon. The print version of the proceedings was available at the registration desk of the conference and is still available.

František Hnilička & Katarína Sládeková