The world’s food supply is facing unprecedented challenges due to Earth’s rapidly changing climate. University of Hawai’i scientists are among a team of researchers who have discovered an innovative way to help adapt food crops around the world to these new conditions. A recent study published in Nature Climate Change reveals how plant genebanks, also known as “living libraries,” can speed up the process of breeding crops better suited for climate change.

These living libraries store seeds and other genetic material from millions of genetically diverse plants worldwide. They provide a vital resource for plant breeders working to develop new crop varieties that have traits such as drought resistance, disease tolerance, or improved yields. The researchers used sorghum, a grain grown for food, fuel, and livestock feed, to test a new method called environmental genomic selection.

This approach combines DNA data with climate information to predict which plants are best suited for future conditions. It can be applied to any crop that has the right data, including sorghum, barley, cannabis, pepper, and dozens of other crops. By using a smaller, diverse “mini-core” group to forecast how crops will perform in different environments, scientists can quickly select the best parents for new, climate-resilient varieties.

“This method will help us keep pace with the hotter temperatures and increased risk of flooding from Earth’s changing climate and help develop new varieties to ensure food security,” said co-author Michael Kantar of the UH Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR).

The researchers also discovered that nations with high sorghum use may need genetic resources from other countries to effectively adapt to climate change. This highlights the value of global teamwork in securing the world’s food supply.

In conclusion, living libraries can play a crucial role in helping us adapt food crops to climate change. By leveraging these genetic resources and innovative breeding techniques, we can develop more resilient crop varieties that will ensure global food security for generations to come.

The article highlights a critical aspect of environmental degradation: the rising soil nitrous acid (HONO) emissions driven by climate change and fertilization, which accelerate global ozone pollution. A team of researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has examined global soil HONO emissions data from 1980 to 2016 and incorporated them into a chemistry-climate model. Their findings reveal that soil HONO emissions contribute significantly to the increase in the ozone mixing ratio in air, which has negative impacts on vegetation.

The researchers found that soil HONO emissions have increased from 9.4 Tg N in 1980 to 11.5 Tg N in 2016, with a 2.5% average annual rise in the global surface ozone mixing ratio. This increase may lead to overexposure of vegetation to ozone, affecting ecosystem balance and food crop production. Moreover, ozone damage reduces vegetation’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide, further aggravating greenhouse gas emissions.

The study emphasizes that soil HONO emissions are influenced by nitrogen fertiliser usage and climate factors like soil temperature and water content. Emissions hotspots cluster in agricultural areas worldwide, with Asia being the largest emitter (37.2% of total).

Interestingly, regions with lower pollution levels are more affected by ozone formation due to higher volatile organic compound concentrations and lower nitrogen oxide levels. This implies that as global anthropogenic emissions decrease, the impact of soil HONO emissions on ozone levels may increase.

To mitigate this issue, Prof. Tao Wang recommends considering soil HONO emissions in strategies for reducing global air pollution. The research team developed a robust parameterisation scheme by integrating advanced modelling techniques and diverse datasets, which can facilitate more accurate assessments of ozone production caused by soil HONO emissions and their impact on vegetation.

Future studies should explore mitigation strategies to optimise fertiliser use while maintaining agricultural productivity, such as deep fertiliser placement and the use of nitrification inhibitors.

As the world grapples with the challenges of a changing climate, a renowned expert in crop sciences is sounding the alarm about the need for urgent and consistent effort to “future-proof” our crops. Stephen Long, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has spent decades studying photosynthesis and finding ways to improve it. In a review published in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, he provides an overview of key scientific findings that offer a glimmer of hope.

Long highlights the devastating effects of climate change on crop growth, development, and reproductive viability. Higher temperatures, more frequent and longer droughts, catastrophic rainfall events, and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are all taking a toll on plant health. While some regions may benefit from certain aspects of climate change, many others will suffer potentially catastrophic declines without prolonged intervention.

By 2050-60, crops will face a significantly different environment than today, with atmospheric CO2 projected to reach 600 parts per million. Extreme heat, droughts, floods, and other climate-related events are already disrupting agricultural systems. Projected temperature extremes and climate instability will further reduce crop yields, exacerbating starvation, political unrest, and mass migration.

However, Long notes that it may be possible to alter crops in ways that allow them to persist and even thrive despite the challenges. Researchers are evaluating the heat-, drought-, and flood-tolerance of different varieties of specific crop plants, identifying those with potentially beneficial attributes. Discovering the genetic traits that confer these benefits will enable scientists to develop crops through plant breeding and/or genetic engineering that can better withstand extremes.

Long’s research has already yielded promising results, such as finding rice varieties that can survive up to two weeks of submergence during periods of intense flooding, while other varieties are more heat-tolerant. Plants must contend with the increased drying capacity of the atmosphere as temperatures rise, drawing moisture out of plant leaves through tiny pores called stomata. This reduces plant water-use efficiency, straining already scarce water resources.

In laboratory and field experiments, researchers found that increasing the expression of a gene for a sensor protein in plants reduced water loss through stomata without interfering with photosynthesis. The result was a 15% improvement in leaf-level water-use efficiency in field-grown tobacco and a 30% decrease in whole plant water use.

Researchers have also found ways to reduce the density of stomata on rice and wheat leaves, improving water-use efficiency by 15-20% without decreasing yields. High carbon dioxide levels can alter plant physiology, sometimes beneficially boosting photosynthesis but also detrimentally changing metabolic control.

Long points to remarkable progress made in research on maize, nearly 80% of which is used in ethanol production and to feed animals, not humans. Between 1980 and 2024, U.S. maize yields doubled while sorghum improved just 12%. The success in maize is the result of massive investments from large multinational companies.

However, without similar investment on the public domain side of the equation, Long writes that it’s hard to see how opportunities for future-proofing our crops can be implemented at the scale necessary. Without urgent and consistent effort, we risk losing valuable crop varieties and facing catastrophic declines in food production.

The stakes are high, but so is the potential reward. As Long emphasizes, investing in research and development of climate-resilient crops can help ensure a more food-secure future for generations to come.