Author
|
Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter Publication Acceptance Date: 9/28/2015 Publication Date: 11/16/2016 Citation: Fleisher, D.H., Timlin, D.J., Reddy, V. 2016. Climate change and potato: Responses to carbon dioxide, temperature, and drought. In: J.L. Hatfield and D. Fleisher (Editors), Improving Modeling Tools to Assess Climate Change Effects on Crop Response. Advances in Agricultural Systems Modeling: Transdisciplinary Research, Synthesis, and Applications. American Society of Agronomy, Inc., Crop Science Society of America, Inc., Soil Science Society of America, Inc. Madison, WI USA, p. 69-90. doi.org/10.2134/advagricsystmodel7. Interpretive Summary: Potatoes rank fifth out of all food crops in terms of total world-wide production. But this important crop is sensitive to high temperatures and decreases in soil water availability. Since climate change predictions include warming temperatures and changes in rainfall, potato production, and therefore global food security, may be significantly impacted in the future. A lot of experiments were conducted in the past to study potato responses to increasing carbon dioxide concentration, but comparatively little work was done to study changes in carbon dioxide with temperature or water availability. Over 10 years of experimental studies that measured potato responses to these three factors were compiled and analyzed. The results show potato water use will likely be more efficient under future climate conditions and yields may slightly increase as long as temperatures do not get too high. This large database on potato responses to climate change can be used by scientists and engineers to model future impacts on potato production and identify ways that farmers can adapt. Technical Abstract: Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) ranks fifth worldwide in annual production among food crops. It is sensitive to warm temperatures (T) and water availability (W), two factors which are expected to be profoundly impacted by climate change. Since 2003, over seven studies and 12 experiments have been conducted with potato in soil-plant-atmosphere-research (SPAR) chambers located at United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) facilities in Beltsville, Maryland. These studies investigated agronomic responses of different potato cultivars to elevated carbon dioxide (C) concentration and interactions between C x T and C x W. Across all studies, positive responses to elevated C were observed, including (a) higher leaf and canopy photosynthetic rates, (b) more dry matter production, (c) increased tuber yield and higher harvest index, (d) decreased evapotranspiration, and (e) higher water use efficiency as compared to production at ambient C levels. Interactions between C x T exhibited similar patterns, except yields and harvest indices were observed to increase more for elevated versus ambient C grown potato for air temperatures up to a maximum of 26°C. Priority for photosynthate was strongly shifted towards tuber organs under conditions of increasing soil water scarcity and eC, resulting in higher harvest index and water use efficiency as compared to ambient C results. Although many knowledge gaps still exist, particularly regarding cultivar differences and C x T x W interactions, this large database will be suitable for development of methodologies and modeling tools to assess climate change impacts on potato production and identify adaptation strategies. |
