TY - JOUR
T1 - Crop responses to climatic variation
T2 - Papers of a Discussion Meeting held at The Royal Society on 26 and 27 April 2005
Food crops an a changing climate
AU - Porter, John R.
AU - Semenov, Mikhail A.
N1 - Organized and edited by T.R. Wheeler, A.J. Challinor, J.M. Slingo and B.J. Hoskins
Paper id:: www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk
PY - 2005
Y1 - 2005
N2 - The yield and quality of food crops is central to the well being of humans and is directly affected by
climate and weather. Initial studies of climate change on crops focussed on effects of increased carbon
dioxide (CO2) level and/or global mean temperature and/or rainfall and nutrition on crop production.
However, crops can respond nonlinearly to changes in their growing conditions, exhibit threshold
responses and are subject to combinations of stress factors that affect their growth, development and
yield. Thus, climate variability and changes in the frequency of extreme events are important for yield,
its stability and quality. In this context, threshold temperatures for crop processes are found not to
differ greatly for different crops and are important to define for the major food crops, to assist climate
modellers predict the occurrence of crop critical temperatures and their temporal resolution.
This paper demonstrates the impacts of climate variability for crop production in a number of
crops. Increasing temperature and precipitation variability increases the risks to yield, as shown via
computer simulation and experimental studies. The issue of food quality has not been given sufficient
importance when assessing the impact of climate change for food and this is addressed. Using
simulation models of wheat, the concentration of grain protein is shown to respond to changes in the
mean and variability of temperature and precipitation events. The paper concludes with discussion of
adaptation possibilities for crops in response to drought and argues that characters that enable better
exploration of the soil and slower leaf canopy expansion could lead to crop higher transpiration
efficiency.
AB - The yield and quality of food crops is central to the well being of humans and is directly affected by
climate and weather. Initial studies of climate change on crops focussed on effects of increased carbon
dioxide (CO2) level and/or global mean temperature and/or rainfall and nutrition on crop production.
However, crops can respond nonlinearly to changes in their growing conditions, exhibit threshold
responses and are subject to combinations of stress factors that affect their growth, development and
yield. Thus, climate variability and changes in the frequency of extreme events are important for yield,
its stability and quality. In this context, threshold temperatures for crop processes are found not to
differ greatly for different crops and are important to define for the major food crops, to assist climate
modellers predict the occurrence of crop critical temperatures and their temporal resolution.
This paper demonstrates the impacts of climate variability for crop production in a number of
crops. Increasing temperature and precipitation variability increases the risks to yield, as shown via
computer simulation and experimental studies. The issue of food quality has not been given sufficient
importance when assessing the impact of climate change for food and this is addressed. Using
simulation models of wheat, the concentration of grain protein is shown to respond to changes in the
mean and variability of temperature and precipitation events. The paper concludes with discussion of
adaptation possibilities for crops in response to drought and argues that characters that enable better
exploration of the soil and slower leaf canopy expansion could lead to crop higher transpiration
efficiency.
KW - Former LIFE faculty
KW - crop yields; climatic variability; simulation models; grain quality; crop adaptation
U2 - 10.1098/rstb 2005.1752
DO - 10.1098/rstb 2005.1752
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0962-8436
VL - 360
SP - 2021
EP - 2035
JO - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
IS - 1463
ER -