Climate change is already affecting the global natural resource base such as terrestrial vegetation, animal husbandry and fisheries that societies depend on to provide food, fiber, fuel, industrial products and recreational services. Factors contributing to the changing climate are mostly associated with the emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons caused by human activities. Such alterations in atmospheric chemistry and their associated impact on global climate have raised the concern of increasing crop production to ensure the food security of growing human population in the current as well as in the future climate scenarios. Environmental factors such as temperature, water and nutrient availability, atmospheric carbon dioxide, solar radiation, and ultraviolet radiation are major determinants of crop adaptation and drive their productivity worldwide. In natural settings, crops are simultaneously exposed to multiple global change drivers. Therefore the productivity of an agro-ecosystem depends on the intricate balance between these multiple drivers. Lately, our understanding of plant responses to single environmental factors has advanced significantly, however studies related to the plant response to multiple abiotic factors are still limited. Experiments using various field crops were conducted under field and controlled environments to understand the interactive impacts of multiple abiotic factors on crops under current and future climatic scenarios. The climate sensitivity and potential production capacity of corn and potato as limited by biophysical constraints in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard Region was assessed using crops simulation models. Efficacy of using water management and planting date as adaptation strategies were also explored for this region.
Results/Conclusions
Results showed that a combination of abiotic stresses is more detrimental to crop growth and yield than single factor. Furthermore, increased atmospheric CO2 often ameliorated the negative impacts of other stressors, such as heat and nutrient, for crop vegetative growth but not for the reproductive growth and yield. Thus, plant vegetative processes in response to abiotic factors appeared to differ from that of the reproductive process. The model assessment showed that in the U.S. Eastern Seaboard Region, the potential production capacity of corn and potato yield under fully irrigated (non-limited) versus water limited scenario increased by 31% and 41%, respectively. However, compared to the baseline (1970-2000), under mid century (2050-2080) climatic change scenario, rain-fed corn yield decreased 17% and potato 70%. The assessment indicated significant reduction in the yield losses by increasing irrigation and adjusting planting dates.