Climate-smart forests and agriculture: patterns and diversity of tree and crop responses to elevated growth temperatures

气候变暖对粮食安全以及森林提供社会所依赖的经济和生态效益的能力构成了紧迫的威胁。但目前尚不清楚为什么有些植物物种在高温下仍能保持吸收碳的能力并有效生长，而其他物种则受到变暖的负面影响。该研究计划将评估温暖的生长条件如何影响影响碳通量（光合作用和呼吸作用）和经济上重要的树木和作物物种以及模式物种的生长。通过使用在温暖的生长温度下维持光合作用和呼吸作用能力不同的物种，这项工作将有助于确定与未来温暖气候下的表现相关的解剖学，生物化学和生理学特征，从而为创造气候智能作物品种和树木品系提供目标，这些品种和品系可以更好地耐受未来的气候。此外，由于未来气候条件下作物产量和森林生长的预测取决于我们模拟植物生产力基础生理过程的能力，这项工作将为建模者提供关键信息，说明温暖生长的植物与当前温度下生长的植物有何不同，从而改进这些模型。最后，这项研究计划将评估叶片性状，如氮浓度或密度/厚度，是否与在温暖的生长条件下保持性能的能力相关。如果是这样的话，那么这些信息就可以被纳入大规模的模型中，以帮助预测各种植物将如何科普气候变暖。由于叶片碳通量在确定大气CO2浓度方面起着重要作用，因此了解变暖如何影响光合作用和呼吸作用不仅对于确定未来的食物，木材和纤维供应至关重要，而且对于预测我们的气候变化速度也至关重要。拟议的工作将为10名学生提供分析和沟通技能方面的关键培训，沿着解决这些复杂环境问题的国际方法，从而为他们在工业、政策和学术界的职业生涯做好准备。

Climate warming is a pressing threat to food security and the ability of our forests to provide the economic and ecological benefits our society relies on. But it is unclear why some plant species maintain their ability to uptake carbon and grow efficiently at elevated growth temperatures, while other species are negatively impacted by warming. This research program will assess how warm growing conditions impact traits that affect carbon fluxes (photosynthesis and respiration) and growth in economically important tree and crop species, as well as in a model species. By using species that differ in their ability to maintain photosynthesis and respiration under warm growth temperatures, this work will help identify the anatomical, biochemical and physiological traits that correlate with performance in future, warmer climates, thus providing targets for creating climate-smart crop varieties and tree lines that can better tolerate future climates. Additionally, because predictions of crop yield and forest growth in future climates depend on our ability to model the physiological processes underlying plant productivity, this work will provide critical information for modelers about how warm-grown plants differ from those grown under current temperatures, thus improving these models. Lastly, this research program will evaluate whether leaf traits, such as nitrogen concentration or density/thickness, correlate with the ability to maintain performance in warmer growth conditions. If so, then this information can be incorporated into large-scale models to help predict how a wide range of plants will cope with climate warming. Since leaf carbon fluxes play an important role in determining atmospheric CO2 concentrations, understanding how warming impacts photosynthesis and respiration is critical not only for determining future food, wood and fibre supplies, but also for predicting how rapidly our climate will change. The proposed work will provide critical training in analytical and communication skills for ten students, along with an international approach to solving these complex environmental problems, thus preparing them for careers in industry, policy and academia.