Plants and the changing environment

Authors: DE KIOK, LUIT - University Of Groningen; GRANTZ, DAVID - University Of California; Burkey, Kent

Submitted to: Plant Biology
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/15/2015
Publication Date: 1/4/2016
Citation: De Kiok, L., Grantz, D., Burkey, K.O. 2016. Plants and the changing environment. Plant Biology. 18(suppl1):3-4.

Interpretive Summary: This editorial published in a special issue of Plant Biology provides an overview of a series of papers presented at the 9th Air Pollution and Global Change (APGC) Symposium, “Plants and the Changing Environment", that was held on the shores of Monterey Bay, California USA, on 8-12 June, 2014, hosted by the University of California at Riverside and the U.S. Department of Agriculture/ARS, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Technical Abstract: In this Special Issue of Plant Biology, current trends in research on plant responses to the changing environment are highlighted. Several studies consider plant responses to the mixture of interacting stresses that will accompany climate change, including drought, heat, high light and increased CO2 concentrations. It is suggested that the integration of responses to multiple stresses may not be synergistic, as is often assumed, and that responses to specific stresses, such as drought and salinity, may be linked through metabolomics, and distinguished from responses to other stresses, such as high temperature. A number of studies investigate the interaction of ozone with specific aspects of changing climate, emphasizing impacts on photosynthesis, plant water relations and antioxidant metabolism in tree and crop species. The complexity of the physiological basis of ozone tolerance is considered in soybean genotypes differing in ozone tolerance. Ozone interactions with altered rainfall patterns are considered for pasture species, including aspects of forage digestibility. An important aspect of plant response to climate change is the alteration of competitive interactions, across and within trophic levels, including drought impacts on weed species. Global climate change is altering plant-pest interactions, leading to new conceptual frameworks for effects of temperature and ozone on the traditional disease triangle of environment-host vigor-pathogen virulence, with emphasis on the western United States. Positive feedbacks between plant responses to stress and physiological responses that may further accelerate climate change are also considered. High temperatures may increase emissions of volatile organic compounds, which react in the lower atmosphere while particulate pollution may interfere directly with plant ability to regulate the balance of water loss and carbon acquisition.