Climate change and plants

Abstract

Climate change with its escalating apparent widespread impacts is turning into a major environmental challenge in contemporary times as it poses a considerable threat to ecosystems, water resources, food security, and overall economic stability. The change in climate observed over the past 50 years is primarily attributed to unabated emissions of radiative gases. The implicit certainty about continuity of the changing climate trend in the future is likely to affect multifaceted sources of plant productivity, including level of temperature, atmospheric CO2, and precipitation conditions, making it amply clear that plants will have to face the prospect of this change which can be both beneficial and detrimental. Many crops will show positive responses to changed levels of these climatic variables, but extreme levels will often negatively affect growth and yields. Predictions of climate change under various emission scenarios are likely to increase the concentration of CO2 which will be associated with temperature increase and change in precipitation pattern and are likely to increase plant water stress in addition to the threat of increased pests and diseases, and can thereby engender adaptation challenges for plant productivity.