Crop responses to global warming

Abstract

The monograph entitled "Crop responses to Global warming" describes the normal historical shifts in the earth’s atmospheric temperature and weighs the evidence concerning anthropogenic induced changes in the level of temperature. The unprecedented increase in the earth’s temperature after pre industrial period has been possibly related to the anthropogenic activities. This monograph will give an overview of the global as well as Indian crops productivity in relation to the rise in the earth’s surface temperature. A chapter in this monograph is on the technologies to study the response of crop plants to the elevated temperature. The impact assessment analysis of rising temperature on crops such as wheat, rice, maize, soybean, cotton and brassica are described, reviewed and discussed in separate chapters as case studies. The responses of physiological processes and biochemical reactions to the elevated temperature in crop plants are described crop wise. The monograph also includes the impact of elevating temperature on crop weed interaction, pest and diseases and soil dynamics for each crop species independently. The mitigation technologies to counter the adverse effect of high temperature stress are described for each crop according to their cultivation and climatic conditions. The future research strategies for each crop to meet the threat of elevating temperature on crop productivity and food security is described and discussed. The description of temperature enrichment technologies will help researchers and scientists to study the responses of biological materials to rising temperature. The monograph will be the main text for teaching climate change, global warming and environmental botany as no such book is currently available relating to the rising atmospheric temperature on crop plants. Therefore, the monograph will be highly useful for students of global climate change, environmental botany and agricultural sciences, scientists, researchers, farmers and policy makers.