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Impacts of abiotic stresses on the physiology and metabolism of cool-season grasses: A review
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Impacts of abiotic stresses on the physiology and metabolism of cool-season grasses: A review

Dimitra Loka, John Harper, Mike Humphreys, Dagmara Gasior, Peter Wootton-Beard, Dylan Gwynn-Jones, John Scullion, John Doonan, Alison Kingston-Smith, Rosalind Dodd, …
Food and energy security, Vol.8(1), e00152
2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/fes3.152
pdf
Published1.84 MBDownloadView
CC BY V4.0,  Open Access

Abstract

Agriculture Agronomy Food Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology
Grasslands cover more than 70% of the world's agricultural land playing a pivotal role in global food security, economy, and ecology due to their flexibility and functionality. Climate change, characterized by changes in temperature and precipitation patterns, and by increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is anticipated to increase both the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as drought, heat waves, and flooding. Potentially, climate change could severely compromise future forage crop production and should be considered a direct threat to food security. This review aimed to summarize our current understanding of the physiological and metabolic responses of temperate grasses to those abiotic stresses associated with climate change. Primarily, substantial decreases in photosynthetic rates of cool-season grasses occur as a result of high temperatures, water-deficit or water-excess, and elevated ozone, but not CO2 concentrations. Those decreases are usually attributed to stomatal and non-stomatal limitations. Additionally, while membrane instability and reactive oxygen species production was a common feature of the abiotic stress response, total antioxidant capacity showed a stress-specific response. Furthermore, climate change-related stresses altered carbohydrate partitioning, with implications for biomass production. While water-deficit stress, increased CO2, and ozone concentrations resulted in higher carbohydrate content, the opposite occurred under conditions of heat stress and flooding. The extent of damage is greatly dependent on location, as well as the type and intensity of stress. Fortunately, temperate forage grass species are highly heterogeneous. Consequently, through intra- and in particular inter-specific plant hybridization (e.g., Festuca x Lolium hybrids) new opportunities are available to harness, within single genotypes, gene combinations capable of combating climate change.

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16 Record Views
36 Times Cited - Web of Science

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.4 Crop Science
3.4.49 Plant Stress Responses
Web Of Science research areas
Agronomy
Food Science & Technology
Plant Sciences
ESI research areas
Agricultural Sciences
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