Author
DIETTERICH, LEE - University Of Pennsylvania | |
ZANOBETTI, ANTONELLA - Harvard School Of Public Health | |
KLOOG, ITAI - Harvard School Of Public Health | |
HUYBERS, PETER - Harvard University | |
LEAKEY, ANDREW - University Of Illinois | |
BLOOM, ARNOLD - University Of California | |
CARLISLE, ELI - University Of California | |
FITZGERALD, GLENN - Department Of Primary Industries | |
HASEGAWA, TOSHIHIRO - National Institute For Agro-Environmental Sciences | |
HOLBROOK, N.MICHELE - Harvard University | |
Nelson, Randall | |
OTTMAN, MICHAEL - University Of Arizona | |
Raboy, Victor | |
SAKAI, HIDEMITSU - National Institute For Agro-Environmental Sciences | |
SARTOR, KARLA - Nature Conservancy | |
SCHWARTZ, JOEL - Harvard School Of Public Health | |
SENEWEERA, SAMAN - University Of Melbourne | |
TAUSZ, MICHAEL - University Of Melbourne | |
USUI, YASUHIRO - National Institute For Agro-Environmental Sciences | |
MYERS, SAMUEL - Harvard School Of Public Health |
Submitted to: Scientific Data
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 6/17/2015 Publication Date: 7/21/2015 Citation: Dietterich, L.H., Zanobetti, A., Kloog, I., Huybers, P., Leakey, A.D., Bloom, A., Carlisle, E., Fitzgerald, G., Hasegawa, T., Holbrook, N., Nelson, R.L., Ottman, M.J., Raboy, V., Sakai, H., Sartor, K.A., Schwartz, J., Seneweera, S., Tausz, M., Usui, Y., Myers, S.S. 2015. Impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 on nutrient content and yield of important food crops. Scientific Data. 2:150036. doi: 10.1038/sdata.2015.36. Interpretive Summary: More research is needed to understand how global climatic change might impact the nutritional quality of basic food crops. One of the most important aspects of cereal and legume nutritional quality when used in human foods is their bioavailability of mineral nutrients like iron, zinc and protein. Factors which affect mineral bioavailability include the amount of minerals in grain- or legume-derived foods, but also include the levels of anti-nutrients like phytic acid. In this study of several food crops including wheat, rice, maize, soybeans and field pea, it was demonstrated that elevated CO2, a possible component of climate change, can result in reduced levels of zinc, iron and protein in “C3” crops such as wheat, rice, soybean and field pea, but not in a “C4” crop like maize. The biological basis for this is probably that “C4” crops utilize CO2 more efficiently, and in a different manner, than do C3 crops. Reductions in phytic acid were also observed, but were not observed consistently across different crops, and the differences observed would not greatly alter nutritional quality. Therefore, global climate change may have a negative impact on crop nutritional quality in terms of their zinc, iron and protein levels. Crop breeders will need to include breeding for maintenance or increase of these nutritionally important food constituents as global climate change occurs in the future. This publication will put all of the data acquired for these studies in an open-access, on-line journal database that is becoming the standard approach. Technical Abstract: One of the many ways that climate change may affect human health is by altering the nutrient content of food crops. However, previous attempts to study the effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on crop nutrition have been limited by small sample sizes and/or artificial growing conditions. Here we present data on the nutritional content of the edible portions of 41 cultivars of six major crop species grown using free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) technology to expose crops to ambient and elevated CO2 concentrations in otherwise normal field cultivation conditions. This data, collected across three continents, represents more than ten times as much data on the nutrient content of crops grown in FACE experiments than was previously available. We expect it to be deeply useful to future studies, such as efforts to understand the impacts of elevated atmospheric CO2 on crop macro- and micronutrient concentrations, or attempts to alleviate harmful effects of these changes for the billions of people who depend on these crops for essential nutrients. |