Developing resilience and tolerance of crop resource use efficiency to climate change and air pollution
It is well known that climate change will impact arable crop production across Europe in coming decades. We also know that air pollution is already having substantial impacts on crop productivity causing yield losses of between 10 and 15% on average across Europe for sensitive staple crops such as wheat. Preliminary results of SUSCAP experiments, performed in open top chambers in central Spain during 2020, have found that both ozone and drought stress alone and in combination reduce photosynthesis and induce accelerated leaf senescence with potential consequences for nitrogen, water and radiation use efficiencies. SUSCAP has been developing a new generation of process-based crop models to incorporate such ozone-induced changes in photosynthesis and senescence. These models will be calibrated and evaluated with empirical data (including that collected within the SUSCAP experiment in Spain) and remotely sensed data collected and analysed to describe LAI, evapotranspiration and soil moisture across Europe. These models will then be used to assess the impacts of combined stresses on crop development, growth and yield, for both the current day and future 2050 European climates. This will allow us to identify the magnitude, frequency and geographical distribution of stress-induced changes to resource use efficiency and hence crop productivity.
View alternative project website at https://suscap.wordpress.com/about/
