Importance of plants for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate chang
Importance of plants for mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change
Gayle M. Volk, USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, 1111 S. Mason St., Fort Collins, CO USA 80521<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Patrick F. Byrne, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado USA 80523<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Tara L. Moreau, University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, 804 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4<EMAIL_ADDRESS>Learning Objectives
Understand and describe how plants are key to mitigating climate change and helping us adapt to its effects.
outline
- Introduction
- Approaches for plant-based mitigation of and adaptation to the effects of climate change
- Plants are solutions: Principles of resilient food systems
- Conclusions
- References
- Acknowledgments
1. introduction
Plants play a critical role in the global carbon cycle and are key to climate change mitigation and adaptation solutions. Through photosynthesis, plants remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it as plant biomass. Carbon accumulates in above- or below-ground plant tissues (branches, stems, roots, etc.) and is added to soils through decomposition. The length of time plants store or sequester carbon varies and greatly impacts the global carbon cycle.
1.1. Plant-based climate change mitigation
Climate change mitigation involves reducing, preventing, or removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Plant-based approaches that address atmospheric CO2 include:
- Protecting high-carbon ecosystems that hold or increase carbon storage (particularly in soils and in plant-rich landscapes such as forests)
- Practicing agroforestry (incorporating trees and shrubs in crops and pastureland) to improve soil health, ecological diversity, and increase land productivity
- Using sustainable agricultural approaches that decrease dependency on high-input field production
- Breeding crops for improved carbon sequestration (e.g., through increased deep root biomass or for biological nitrification inhibition)
- Developing urban landscapes that minimize water use and sequester carbon
1.2. Plant-based adaptation to climate change
Adapting to climate change and its subsequent effects involves making adjustments in response to predicted changes, as well as novel conditions or knowledge. Plants play critical roles in adapting to climate change and plant-based adaptation strategies include:
- Maintaining diverse forest habitats that offset temperature and moisture extremes
- Selecting biodiverse cropping systems to retain productivity as a result of a wide range of environmental responses
- Identifying, developing, and growing a diversity of food plants and agricultural crops
- Selecting and producing crops/cultivars that reduce the need for inputs and reduce waste at all stages: on the farm, during processing and storage, and by the consumer
2. Approaches for Plant-Based Mitigation of and Adaptation to the effects of climate ch