Uni leads climate-resistant crop research
Plants
Crops resistant to the effects of impending climatic change could be developed following research led by the University of Edinburgh’s School of Biological Sciences.
The £6 million five-year project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will examine the potential impact milder winters, warmer summers, and changing lengths of seasons will have upon crop yields.
The project will also investigate the ways in which climate change will impact on forests, woodlands, heaths and moors.
Carried out in conjunction with teams at York, Liverpool, and Warwick Universities, the project is part of a £30 million UK-wide investment into biological science research.
Dr Karen Halliday of the School of Biological Sciences said: “[The team] will draw on expertise in genetics, biochemistry, climate change, mathematics and informatics to widen our understanding of how temperature change affects plant growth and stability.”
Of particular interest to the group is the effect of temperature change on specific proteins involved in plant growth and development. Research such as this, combined with computer modelling and related experiments, give the scientists hope of useful discoveries in the near future.
Dr Halliday stressed how even small changes in temperature can have dramatic effects on plant development, and subsequently crop yields.
Britain’s average temperature has risen by approximately one degree Celsius in the last 100 years and climate scientists expect a tighter rateof temperature increase in the next few decades. This rise in temperature could have a negative impact upon the country’s ability to produce rich crop yields. Consequently research into producing climate change-resistant varieties is considered an important aim of the project.
Dr Halliday said that she and her team “hope to be able to influence the survival of crops, as well as their quality and biodiversity."
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