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With CO2 emissions, droughts and heat waves expected to increase in the coming years, it is essential to understand how these changes will affect global crop yields.
Since scientists can not send seeds in the future and study the impacts on plant growth, the models and projections allow researchers to have a brief overview of the future and to see different possible scenarios.
However, projections and forecasts can not hitherto go in the direction of a realistic description of what the future might hold for cultures and cultures. plant growth.
But what if, instead of zapping seeds in the future, you could bring future climate change to the present and study plant growth?
Outdoor facilities called Free Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) are trying to do this, as FACE facilities are exposed to ever higher CO2 levels.
Researchers from University of California at Davis and the University of Southampton In the UK, a new study has been conducted on FACE plants to understand the potential impact of climate change on plant growth.
The study was published in the journal Biology of global change.
The researchers analyzed plant growth in FACE facilities and compared these responses to the growth of 11 natural sources rich in CO2, where plants are exposed to high concentrations of CO2.
"The results indicate quite surprisingly that, yes, all the experiments that we have done in the FACE facilities give us a pretty good idea of the likely reaction of the plants in the future," said Gail Taylor, the corresponding author. of the study.
The team found that, on the whole, the plants were responding positively to rising CO2 levels, which is promising for the future when emissions are expected to increase.
However, researchers say that emissions are not the only things that should increase. If droughts and temperatures also increase, the plants will not do as well as their FACE counterparts.
"If plants are exposed to higher temperatures and drought, they will likely have negative impacts, so it's a compromise," said Taylor. "But our analysis gives us confidence that power plants will probably continue to react positively to increased CO2 emissions if no other climate factor is limiting."
FACE facilities can say a lot about the future performance of plants, especially for cereal crops that are an essential source of nutrients and carbohydrates for many countries around the world.
"The analysis shows that it is possible to test new plant varieties in FACE experiments before it is essential that they be successful all over the world," Taylor said. "These" traveling "plants that come and go through the decades can be extremely helpful in understanding how plants are likely to respond to projected changes as a result of anthropogenic climate change."
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By Kay Vandette, Earth.com Editor
Image credit: Gail Taylor / UC Davis
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