Agriculture is severely impacted by water stress due either to excess (hypoxia/anoxia) or deficit of water availability. Hypoxia/anoxia is associated with oxygen (O2) deficiency or depletion, inducing several anatomical, morphological, physiological, and molecular changes. The majority of these alterations are adaptive mechanisms to cope with low O2 availability; among them, alterations in shoot length, aerenchyma formation and adventitious roots have been described in several studies. The aim of this review was to address the association between abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene in function of water availability in plants. The major physiological responses to low O2 are associated with changes in root respiration, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, and fermentation pathways in roots. In addition, several changes in gene expression have been associated with pathways that are not present under normal O2 supply