Global climate is changing more rapidly than ever, threatening plant growth and productivity while exerting considerable direct and indirect effects on the quality and quantity of plant nutrients. This review focuses on the global impact of climate change on the nutritional value of plant foods. It showcases the existing evidence linking the effects of climate change factors on crop nutrition and the concentration of nutrients in edible plant parts. It focuses on the effect of elevated CO2 (eCO2), elevated temperature (eT), salinity, waterlogging and drought stresses, and what is known regarding their direct and indirect influence on nutrient availability. Furthermore, it provides possible strategies to preserve the nutritional composition of plant foods under changing climates. Climate change has an impact on the accumulation of minerals and protein in crop plants, with eCO2 being the underlying factor of most of the reported changes. The effects are clearly dependent on the type, intensity and duration of the imposed stress, plant genotype and developmental stage. Strong interactions (both positive and negative) can be found between individual climatic factors and soil availability of nitrogen (N), potassium (K), iron (Fe) and phosphorous (P). The development of future interventions to ensure that the world's population has access to plentiful, safe and nutritious food may need to rely on breeding for nutrients under the context of climate change, including legumes in cropping systems, better farm management practices and utilization of microbial inoculants that enhance nutrient availability.

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Preserving the nutritional quality of crop plants under a changing climate: importance and strategies

Increased temperature means and fluctuations associated with climate change are predicted to exert profound effects on the seed yield of soybean. We conducted an experiment to evaluate the impacts of global warming on the phenology and yield of two determinate soybean cultivars in a temperate region (37.27°N, 126.99°E; Suwon, South Korea). These two soybean cultivars, Sinpaldalkong [maturity group (MG) IV] and Daewonkong (MG VI), were cultured on various sowing dates within a four-year period, under no water-stress conditions. Soybeans were kept in greenhouses controlled at the current ambient temperature (AT), AT+1.5°C, AT+3.0°C, and AT+5.0°C throughout the growth periods. Growth periods (VE–R7) were significantly prolonged by the elevated temperatures, especially the R1–R5 period. Cultivars exhibited no significant differences in seed yield at the AT+1.5°C and AT+3.0°C treatments, compared to AT, while a significant yield reduction was observed at the AT+5.0°C treatment. Yield reductions resulted from limited seed number, which was due to an overall low numbers of pods and seeds per pod. Heat stress conditions induced a decrease in pod number to a greater degree than in seed number per pod. Individual seed weight exhibited no significant variation among temperature elevation treatments; thus, seed weight likely had negligible impacts on overall seed yield. A boundary line analysis (using quantile regression) estimated optimum temperatures for seed number at 26.4 to 26.8°C (VE–R5) for both cultivars; the optimum temperatures (R5–R7) for single seed weight were estimated at 25.2°C for the Sinpaldalkong smaller-seeded cultivar, and at 22.3°C for the Daewonkong larger-seeded cultivar. The optimum growing season (VE–R7) temperatures for seed yield, which were estimated by combining the two boundary lines for seed number and seed weight, were 26.4 and 25.0°C for the Sinpaldalkong and Daewonkong cultivars, respectively. Considering the current soybean growing season temperature, which ranges from 21.7 (in the north) to 24.6°C (in the south) in South Korea, and the temperature response of potential soybean yields, further warming of less than approximately 1°C would not become a critical limiting factor for soybean production in South Korea.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165977&type=printable

Phenology and Seed Yield Performance of Determinate Soybean Cultivars Grown at Elevated Temperatures in a Temperate Region.

Projections of temperature and precipitation patterns across the United States during the next 50 years anticipate a 1.5 to 2°C warming and a slight increase in precipitation as a result of global climate change. There have been relatively few studies of climate change impacts on pasture and rangeland (grazingland) species compared to those on crop species, despite the economic and ecological importance of the former. Here we review the literature on pastureland and rangeland species to rising CO2 and climate change (temperature, and precipitation) and discuss plant and management factors likely to influence pastureland and rangeland responses to change (e.g., community composition, plant competition, perennial growth habit, seasonal productivity, and management methods). Overall, the response of pasture species to increased [CO2] is consistent with the general response of C3 and C4 type vegetation, although significant exceptions exist. Both pastureland and rangeland species should exhibit an acceleration of metabolism and development due to earlier onset of spring green-up and longer growing seasons. However, in the studies reviewed here, C3 pasture species increased their photosynthetic rates by up to 40% while C4 species exhibited no increase in photosynthesis. In general, it is expected that increases in [CO2] and precipitation would enhance rangelandmore » net primary production (NPP) while increased air temperatures would either increase or decrease NPP. Much of this uncertainty in response is due to uncertain future projections of precipitation, both globally and regionally. For example, if annual precipitation changes little or declines, rangeland plant response to warming temperatures and rising [CO2] may be neutral or may decline due to increased water stress. This review reveals the need for comprehensive studies of climate change impacts on the pasture ecosystem including grazing regimes, mutualistic relationships (e.g., plant roots-nematodes; N-fixing organisms), as well as the ecosystem carbon balance, essential nutrients, and water.« less

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Climate Impacts on Agriculture: Implicationsfor Forage and Rangeland Production

The low adoption rate of organic grain production in the United States contrasts with strong consumer demands for organic foods. The low adoption of organic grain farming has constrained further development of the organic sector. Organic agriculture stakeholders have appealed to increase domestic organic grain production. The federal government has provided support for research and extension education regarding organic farming. However, low adoption persists. A better understanding of cognitive and motivational aspects of farmer’s decision making could help policymakers, agricultural scientists, and extension educators to encourage more farmers to adopt organic grain production. This study identified (1) factors that motivated farmers to adopt organic grain farming; (2) challenges that hindered farmers’ adoption of organic grain farming; (3) benefits farmers experienced after adopting organic grain farming; (4) farmers’ needs for extension education regarding organic grain farming; and (5) educational program delivery formats preferred by farmers who raise organic grain crops. I conducted indepth interviews with seventeen Iowa organic grain farmers. Based on the responses from the interviews, I designed a survey incorporating multiple, five-point scales and administered the instrument to all farmers (672) who raised organic grain in Iowa. Farmers reported five motivations to adopt organic grain farming, which included profitability, personal safety, natural resources stewardship, consumers and public health, and honor and tradition. Challenges to adopting organic grain farming included elements of organic farming operation, particularly weeds; marketing, particularly access to organic hay, small grains and transitional crops markets; policies, particularly complex certification; finance, especially during the transitional period; inputs and information, mainly in the local level; social pressures from conventional farmers. Five areas of benefits associated with organic grain farming consisted of increased profitability,

Motivations, challenges, benefits, and educational needs associated with organic grain farming adoption in Iowa

Abstract A super-large ensemble simulation dataset with 110 members has been produced by the fully coupled model FGOALS-g3 developed by researchers at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This is the first dataset of large ensemble simulations with a climate system model developed by a Chinese modeling center. The simulation has the largest realizations up to now worldwide in terms of single-model initial-condition large ensembles. Each member includes a historical experiment (1850–2014) and an experiment (2015–99) under the very high greenhouse gas emissions Shared Socioeconomic Pathway scenario (SSP5-8.5). The dataset includes monthly and daily temperature, precipitation, and other variables, requiring storage of 275 TB. Additionally, the surface air temperature (SAT) and land precipitation simulated by the FGOALS-g3 super-large ensemble have been validated and projected. The ensemble can capture the response of SAT and land precipitation to external forcings well, and the internal variabilities can be quantified. The availability of more than 100 realizations will help researchers to study rare events and improve the understanding of the impact of internal variability on forced climate changes. 

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00376-022-1439-1.pdf

The Super-large Ensemble Experiments of CAS FGOALS-g3

Climate change impacts the life of every person; however, there is little comprehensive understanding of the direct and indirect effects of climate change on agriculture. Because our food, feed, fiber, and fruit are derived from agricultural systems, understanding the effects of changing temperature, precipitation, and carbon dioxide on plant growth and development is critical. Solar radiation and ozone are changing as part of the climate complex and will affect plant growth and development. Understanding the dynamics of plant growth and development with climate will help ensure an adequate agricultural system to meet human needs as the population increases.

J.L. Hatfield

Papers

Climate Change: Cropping System Changes and Adaptations