Crop Production for a Changing World

How research can help agriculture adapt to global warming and air pollution

26th October 2023

Plants that provide food and resources to the world’s population are increasingly stressed: Due to climate change, warm and dry periods are increasing. In addition, ozone and other air pollutants are causing problems for the plants. In a review article published in the journal Nature Food, researchers from Germany, China, and Cyprus explain the strategies that can be used to maintain or even increase agricultural production under these conditions. The team of authors includes two Jülich scientists who are primarily concerned with the response of plants to increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and with the quantitative analysis of the external characteristics of plants (phenotyping).

“The climate is changing so rapidly that conventional methods of breeding are not sufficient to always obtain optimally adapted crops,” says Jülich bioeconomist Oliver Knopf. To ensure that crop yields remain high while using as few resources as possible, researchers around the world are pursuing numerous approaches. The German-Chinese team of authors states in their review article that some of this research focuses on the individual plant – in phenotyping and molecular breeding, for example. Other scientists are concerned with the field as a system. This involves mixed cropping, adapted fertilization and irrigation, robot-assisted farming, and the use of biostimulants, antiozonants, and substances that influence the decomposition process of organic materials in the soil. In addition, there is the possibility of influencing the ecosystem to enhance, for example, the soil resilience or the microclimate of agricultural landscapes.

“To meet the challenges facing agriculture as a result of climate change and air pollution, a better understanding is required at all levels – from plant to ecosystem,” says Knopf. As participants in a German-Chinese exchange programme, he and his co-author Dr. Onno Muller from Jülich’s Institute of Bio- and Geosciences – Plant Sciences (IBG-2) are convinced that inter- and transdisciplinary research is the only way to influence the complex interrelations between increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, heat stress, air pollution, and plant growth.

The influence of CO2

The joint research priority of Knopf and Muller is to quantify the aboveground part of plants and to investigate the influence of increased CO2 concentration. The scientists do not conduct their experiments in a greenhouse, but under realistic conditions in the field. To this end, they operate the BreedFACE experimental facility on the University of Bonn’s Klein-Altendorf campus.

One finding of these field experiments was that the yield of various soybean varieties increased by an average of almost 50 % when the CO2 concentration in the air was increased by 200 parts per million (ppm). At the same time, however, the quality of the harvest declined: The amount of trace elements contained in the beans, such as calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc, dropped by 10 to 28 % and that of proteins by 5 %. “Some soybean varieties showed higher yields than others and experienced less degradation in quality at CO2 levels expected in the atmosphere in 2050. We have therefore obtained valuable information for plant breeding,” says Onno Muller.

Measurement of photosynthetic activity

In the BreedFACE experiments, the Jülich researchers can also measure the photosynthetic activity of the leaves in a contact-free manner. They take advantage of the fact that the chlorophyll in the leaves does not completely convert the energy of sunlight into chemical energy, but also emits energy in the form of a measurable fluorescence signal. A kind of oversized scanner developed at Jülich measures this signal everywhere in the field.

Jülich researchers were also involved in the development of the fluorescence measuring instrument that is expected to provide information on the state of the world’s vegetation on board the European Fluorescence Explorer satellite from 2026.

Original publication:

Agathokleous, E., Frei, M., Knopf, O.M. et al.
Adapting crop production to climate change and air pollution at different scales.
Nat Food 4, 854–865 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-023-00858-y

contact

Dr. Onno Muller

• Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG)
• Plant Sciences (IBG-2)

Building 06.1 /
Room 224

+49 2461/61-8777

E-Mail

Dipl. Biol. Annette Stettien

Leiterin Externe Kommunikation / Stellvertretende Pressesprecherin

Building 15.3 /
Room R 3029

+49 2461/61-2388

E-Mail

Further Information

Institute Website

Plant Sciences (IBG-2)

The Institute develops integrated concepts for the intensification and sustainability of plant production for the bioeconomy based on molecular, physiological and ecological expertise.

Focus

Bioeconomy

Moving away from carbon to a bio-based circular economy: At Jülich, we are helping to make agriculture fit for climate change. We conduct research into how new applications for chemistry, energy production, and pharmaceutics can be developed from biological resources.