scholarly journals Plant adaptation to climate change—opportunities and priorities in breeding

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott C. Chapman ◽  
Sukumar Chakraborty ◽  
M. Fernanda Dreccer ◽  
S. Mark Howden

Climate change in Australia is expected to influence crop growing conditions through direct increases in elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) and average temperature, and through increases in the variability of climate, with potential to increase the occurrence of abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, waterlogging, and salinity. Associated effects of climate change and higher CO2 concentrations include impacts on the water-use efficiency of dryland and irrigated crop production, and potential effects on biosecurity, production, and quality of product via impacts on endemic and introduced pests and diseases, and tolerance to these challenges. Direct adaptation to these changes can occur through changes in crop, farm, and value-chain management and via economically driven, geographic shifts where different production systems operate. Within specific crops, a longer term adaptation is the breeding of new varieties that have an improved performance in ‘future’ growing conditions compared with existing varieties. In crops, breeding is an appropriate adaptation response where it complements management changes, or when the required management changes are too expensive or impractical. Breeding requires the assessment of genetic diversity for adaptation, and the selection and recombining of genetic resources into new varieties for production systems for projected future climate and atmospheric conditions. As in the past, an essential priority entering into a ‘climate-changed’ era will be breeding for resistance or tolerance to the effects of existing and new pests and diseases. Hence, research on the potential incidence and intensity of biotic stresses, and the opportunities for breeding solutions, is essential to prioritise investment, as the consequences could be catastrophic. The values of breeding activities to adapt to the five major abiotic effects of climate change (heat, drought, waterlogging, salinity, and elevated CO2) are more difficult to rank, and vary with species and production area, with impacts on both yield and quality of product. Although there is a high likelihood of future increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and temperatures across Australia, there is uncertainty about the direction and magnitude of rainfall change, particularly in the northern farming regions. Consequently, the clearest opportunities for ‘in-situ’ genetic gains for abiotic stresses are in developing better adaptation to higher temperatures (e.g. control of phenological stage durations, and tolerance to stress) and, for C3 species, in exploiting the (relatively small) fertilisation effects of elevated CO2. For most cultivated plant species, it remains to be demonstrated how much genetic variation exists for these traits and what value can be delivered via commercial varieties. Biotechnology-based breeding technologies (marker-assisted breeding and genetic modification) will be essential to accelerate genetic gain, but their application requires additional investment in the understanding, genetic characterisation, and phenotyping of complex adaptive traits for climate-change conditions.

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2275
Author(s):  
Romina Rodríguez ◽  
Oscar Balocchi ◽  
Daniel Alomar ◽  
Rodrigo Morales

Under the predicted conditions of climate change, the productivity of temperate grasslands may be affected by drought stress, especially in spring and summer. In this scenario, water-deficit-tolerant species such as plantain and chicory are interesting alternatives for use in sheep production systems. In this study, we compared a mixture of plantain and chicory herbage (PCH) with a grass-based permanent sward (GBS) on the weight gain and meat quality of lambs finished on these grasslands. Fifteen weaned lambs (31.3 kg and 4 months of age) were assigned to each treatment for seven weeks in late spring and live weight gain (LWG), carcass and meat quality were evaluated. There was a tendency (p = 0.09) in final weight (40.3 ± 0.8 kg) and live weight gain (173 ± 10 g/d) to be higher in PCH compared to GBS. Carcass weight, dressing percentage and meat quality in terms of pH, color and tenderness did not differ (p > 0.05) and were considered to be of good quality. We concluded that both swards result in comparable lamb performance and good meat quality.


2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (02) ◽  
pp. 73-77
Author(s):  
Supriya Tiwari ◽  
N. K. Dubey

Increasing Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an important component of global climate change that has drawn the attention of environmentalists worldwide in the last few decades. Besides acting as an important greenhouse gas, it also produces a stimulatory effect, its instantaneous impact being a significant increase in the plant productivity. Atmospheric CO2 levels have linearly increased from approximately 280 parts per million (ppm) during pre-industrial times to the current level of more than 390 ppm. In past few years, anthropogenic activities led to a rapid increase in global CO2 concentration. Current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projection indicates that atmospheric CO2 concentration will increase over this century, reaching 730-1020 ppm by 2100. An increase in global temperature, ranging from 1.1 to 6.4oC depending on global emission scenarios, will accompany the rise in atmospheric CO2. As CO2 acts as a limiting factor in photosynthesis, the immediate effect of increasing atmospheric CO2 is improved plant productivity, a feature commonly termed as “CO2 fertilization”. Variability in crop responses to the elevated CO2 made the agricultural productivity and food security vulnerable to the climate change. Several studies have shown significant CO2 fertilization effect on crop growth and yield. An increase of 30 % in plant growth and yield has been reported when CO2 concentration has been doubled from 330 to 660 ppm. However, the fertilization effect of elevated CO2 is not very much effective in case of C4 plants which already contain a CO2 concentration mechanism, owing to their specific leaf 2 anatomy called kranz anatomy. As a result, yield increments observed in C4plants are comparatively lower than the C3 plants under similar elevated CO2 concentrations. This review discusses the trends and the causes of increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, its effects on the crop productivity and the discrepancies in the response of C3 and C4 plants to increasing CO2 concentrations.


Insects ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Chen ◽  
Clément Martin ◽  
Junior Corneille Fingu Mabola ◽  
François Verheggen ◽  
Zhenying Wang ◽  
...  

Climate change is a major environmental concern and is directly related to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. The increase in concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), not only affects plant growth and development, but also affects the emission of plant organic volatile compounds (VOCs). Changes in the plant odor profile may affect the plant-insect interactions, especially the behavior of herbivorous insects. In this study, we compared the foraging behavior of corn leaf aphid (Rhopalosiphum maidis) on barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) seedlings grown under contrasted CO2 concentrations. During the dual choice bioassays, the winged and wingless aphids were more attracted by the VOCs of barley seedlings cultivated under ambient CO2 concentrations (aCO2; 450 ppm) than barley seedlings cultivated under elevated CO2 concentrations (eCO2; 800 ppm), nymphs were not attracted by the VOCs of eCO2 barley seedlings. Then, volatile compositions from 14-d-old aCO2 and eCO2 barley seedlings were investigated by GC-MS. While 16 VOCs were identified from aCO2 barley seedlings, only 9 VOCs were found from eCO2 barley seedlings. At last, we discussed the potential role of these chemicals observed during choice bioassays. Our findings lay foundation for functional response of corn leaf aphid under climate change through host plant modifications.


OENO One ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Pons ◽  
Lucile Allamy ◽  
Armin Schüttler ◽  
Doris Rauhut ◽  
Cécile Thibon ◽  
...  

The intrinsic quality of a wine is strongly linked with its volatile compound composition involved in the complexity of wine’s subtle flavor nuances. Those reminiscent of green pepper, herbaceous, blackcurrant, blackberry, figs or prunes are strongly linked with the maturity of the grapes. Nowadays it is well accepted that macroscopic effects of climate change modify the environmental conditions of grape growing at local scale in all the vineyards across the world. The expected effects on grape and wine production can be positive when they increase the maturity of the grapes, but when the conditions are too warm and too dry they induce opposite effects producing grapes and wines with a lower intrinsic quality. These effects were perceived in young wines but also in older wines kept several years in bottle.In this article, we provide some examples of effects of climate change and growing conditions on grapevine and wine quality expressed as flavors and antioxidant composition. We also report some results associated with the incidence of grape growing conditions on white and red wine aging potential and on the composition of old wines.Finally, we discuss the opportunities for vine growers and winemakers to manage the quality of their grapes and wines in this climate change context.


OENO One ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Duchene

<p style="text-align: justify;">Climate change is modifying the environmental conditions in all the vineyards across the world. The expected effects on grape and wine production can be positive in some grape growing regions, but under warmer or dryer conditions the volume and quality of the wines produced can be impaired. Adaptation to new climatic conditions includes changes in the cultivation areas, changes in the vineyard or cellar practices, and use of new rootstock × scion combinations. In this article, we provide an overview of the possible effects of climate change on grapevine physiology and berry quality and we describe the more important traits and the genetic variability that can be used in the adaptation process. We also present the modern techniques that can be used by researchers to identify the links between genomic information and behaviors in the field. Finally, we discuss the existing opportunities in the present grapevine collections and the strategies that can be used by breeders to create new varieties.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki Laurila ◽  
Pirjo Mäkelä ◽  
Jouko Kleemola ◽  
Jari Peltonen

In this study Mixed structural covariance, Path and Cultivation Value analyses and the CERES-Wheat crop model were used to evaluate vegetation and yield component variation affecting yield potential between different high-latitude (> 60° N lat.) and mid-European (< 60° N lat.) spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes currently cultivated in southern Finland. Path modeling results from this study suggest that especially grains/ear, harvest index (HI) and maximum 1000 kernel weight were significant factors defining the highest yield potential. Mixed and Cultivation value modeling results suggest that when compared with genotypes introduced for cultivation before 1990s, modern spring wheat genotypes have a significantly higher yielding capacity, current high yielding mid-European genotypes even exceeding the 5 t ha-1 non-potential baseline yield level (yb). Because of a forthcoming climate change, the new high yielding wheat genotypes have to adapt for elevated temperatures and atmospheric CO2 growing conditions in northern latitudes. The optimized ideotype profiles derived from the generic high-latitude and mid-European genotypes are presented in the results. High-latitude and mid-European ideotype profiles with factors estimating the effects of concurrent elevated CO2 and temperature levels with photoperiodical daylength effects can be utilized when designing future high yielding ideotypes adapted to future growing conditions. The CERES-Wheat ideotype modeling results imply, that with new high yielding mid-European ideotypes, the non-potential baseline yield (yb) would be on average 5150 kg ha-1 level (+ 108 %) vs. new high-latitude ideotypes (yb 4770 kg ha-1, 100%) grown under the elevated CO2(700ppm)×temperature(+3ºC) growing conditions projected by the year 2100 climate change scenario in southern Finland.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 910
Author(s):  
Nadeem Iqbal ◽  
Sudheesh Manalil ◽  
Bhagirath Singh Chauhan ◽  
Steve Adkins

An elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and frequent droughts are two anticipated climate change scenarios in which certain invasive weeds may develop competitive advantages over crops and adversely impact productivity and herbicide efficacy. Hence, a study was conducted to explore the effect of different climatic scenarios on the growth and management of Sesbania cannabina (Retz.) Pers with glyphosate. The variables investigated were two CO2 concentrations (400 and 700 ppm), two soil moisture levels (100% and 50% of field capacity (FC)), and three glyphosate rates (0 (control), 517 (50% of recommended rate), and 1034 g ae ha−1 (recommended rate)). CO2 concentrations and soil moisture levels had different effects on the growth and management of S. cannabina. Overall, 100% FC and elevated [CO2] of 700 ppm recorded the maximum plant height (38 cm), leaves per plant (20), growth index (60), chlorophyll content (SPAD value 37), and dry biomass (3 g) in comparison with ambient [CO2] of 400 ppm and 50% FC treatment. The recommended glyphosate application gave 100% weed biomass reduction; however, efficacy was reduced (63%) when applied at 50% of the recommended rate under elevated [CO2] of 700 ppm and 50% FC conditions.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 256
Author(s):  
Tejaswini C. Rangaswamy ◽  
Shankarappa Sridhara ◽  
Nandini Ramesh ◽  
Pradeep Gopakkali ◽  
Diaa O. El-Ansary ◽  
...  

Climate change has increasing effects on horticultural crops. To investigate the impact of CO2 and temperature at elevated levels on tomato production and quality of fruits an experiment was conducted by growing plants in open top chambers. The tomato plants were raised at EC550 (elevated CO2 at 550 ppm) and EC700 (elevated CO2 at 700 ppm) alone and in combination with elevated temperature (ET) + 2 °C in the open top chambers. These elevate CO2 and temperature treatment effects were compared with plants grown under ambient conditions. Outcome of the experiment indicated that growth parameters namely plant stature in terms of height (152.20 cm), leaf number (158.67), canopy spread (6127.70 cm2), leaf area (9110.68 cm2) and total dry matter (223.0 g/plant) were found to be high at EC700 compared to plants grown at ambient conditions in open field. The plants grown at EC700 also exhibited significantly higher number of flowers (273.80) and fruits (261.13), more fruit weight (90.46 g) and yield (5.09 kg plant−1) compared to plants grown at ambient conditions in open field. The percent increase in fruit yield due to EC varied from 18.37 (EC550) to 21.41 (EC700) percent respectively compared to open field and the ET by 2 °C has reduced the fruit yield by 20.01 percent. Quality traits like Total Soluble Solids (3.67 °Brix), reducing sugars (2.48%), total sugars (4.41%) and ascorbic acid (18.18 mg/100 g) were found maximum in EC700 treated tomato than other elevated conditions. Keeping quality was also improved in tomato cultivated under EC700 (25.60 days) than the open field (17.80 days). These findings reveal that CO2 at 700 ppm would be a better option to improve both quantitative as well as qualitative traits in tomato. Among the combinations, EC550 + 2 °C proved better than EC700 + 2 °C with respect to yield as well as for the quality traits. The tomato grown under ET (+2 °C) alone recorded lowest growth and yield attributes compared to open field conditions and rest of the treatments. The positive influence of EC700 is negated to an extent of 14.35 % when the EC700 combined with elevated temperature of + 2 °C. The present study clearly demonstrates that the climate change in terms of increased temperature and CO2 will have a positive effect on tomato by way of increase in production and quality of fruits. Meanwhile the increase in EC beyond 700 ppm along with ET may reduce the positive effects on yield and quality of tomato.


Author(s):  
Teodoro Lasanta ◽  
Carlos Baroja-Sáenz ◽  
Melani Cortijos-López ◽  
Estela Nadal-Romero ◽  
Ignacio Martín ◽  
...  

Climate change is promoting increasingly hot and dry conditions in the vineyards of the Mediterranean basin, affecting both the physiology and phenology of the vine, as well as the production and quality of the grape. In this context, adaptation and mitigation measurements against climate change are necessary to maintain high quality wines and varietal typicity, as well as to respond to market demands. The objective of this study is to show adaptation strategies that are being carried out or considered by winegrowers of the Denomination of Origin Qualified Rioja (DOCa Rioja). Among the strategies, the following should be highlighted: changes in the location of the vineyard, either towards areas with irrigation possibilities and very fertile soils (mainly low terraces), or towards higher altitude areas (mainly high glacis), thus trying to avoid the effects of water stress and increased temperatures; and (ii) modifications in the strain conduction system, often replacing the vessel conduction with the trellis conduction, in order to match a greater degree of mechanization of the agronomic tasks and the improvement of the improvement of the vine’s microclimate, especially in the new plantations in very fertile soils. These strategies will be increasingly relevant, taking into account the foreseeable increase in temperatures and droughts in the future climate scenarios. However, the question arises as to whether these strategies will be sufficient or whether it will be necessary to eliminate current restrictions imposed by DOCa Rioja, such as expanding the vineyard in mountain areas or introducing new varieties.


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