Eva-Mari Aro: Climate Change Could Have a Severe Impact on Plants

​The IPCC climate report paints a harsh picture on the progression of climate change. Climate change will have a severe effect on plants for various reasons. For example, plants are not prepared for major and relatively sudden changes in their seasonal environment. Climate conditions also play a crucial role in the spread of plant diseases and pathogens, says Professor Eva-Mari Aro.

– Genetically, plants have become acclimatised to grow, multiply and produce harvest in relatively stable annual environmental conditions. The climate change that has taken place in the past decades and is progressing rapidly is unreasonably harsh for many plants, Aro says.

Aro believes that changing the area of distribution might offer plants a way to survive. However, a lot of species will inevitably disappear completely due to drought and erosion, for instance. Taking into account the accelerating increase in the spreading speed and area of plant diseases and pests due to the insufficient controlling of international business, the consequences could be disastrous.

As primary producers, plants are the main source of energy for people around the world. However, grain crops have decreased significantly during the past years, and at the same time the human population is predicted to increase continuously. With the accelerating spread of plant diseases and pests, the future of food production is under serious threat.

– Plants are vulnerable to new diseases, and epidemics break out the same way as with human populations. At the moment, we are shocked about the spread of the lethal Ebola virus to as many as four countries. Nevertheless, we are prepared for tackling epidemics that threat humans on an international level. However, the preparation for plant diseases and epidemics has been insufficient.

According to Aro, society should prepare for disease epidemics facing plants.

International Action Crucial in Facing the Threats of Climate Change

Aro is a member of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). For the past three years, she has been working for the Biosciences Steering Committee that published the report Risks to Plant Health in March. The Trends in Plant Sciences journal published a summary of the report: How Should We Tackle the Global Risks to Plant Health?

The EASAC report emphasises the significance of developing an integrated action plan that is based on scientific proof. The action plan should combine controlling international business that is based on plants and plant products as well as scientific possibilities, which include producing more tolerant plant species using new plant breeding methods, new control mechanisms for preserving crops, and other integrated pest control practice. New innovations and control methods should be available already before the climate change has a large scale impact on plants and the spread of plant diseases.

– Life on Earth depends completely on plant production. The new report tackles the issues and the possibilities to avoid major plant disease epidemics worldwide, as well as to prevent the collapse of food production as a consequence of climate change.

According to Aro, it is now crucial to aim to preserve the gene resources and the genetic diversity of plants so that it would be possible to breed plants that can acclimatise to changing environmental conditions and will have a higher tolerance of diseases in future. The new breeding methods of plants, a thorough utilisation of genomics and the knowledge of the functional metabolism of plants are essential in keeping up with the changes in the environment. Another EASAC report deals with what happens if Europe will not accept genetic engineering.

– Plant breeding is quite a dilemma today. In the 1950s, the answer to the shortage of food supplies was the Green Revolution that was able to maintain food production with the aid of new fertilisers and biocides as the world’s population was growing. However, this road has come to an end, and, as a consequence, we now have an enormous pollutant bomb in our hands, which we need to get rid of without a doubt.

In the past decades, science has produced new breeding methods. “The Gene Revolution” would enable the production of cultivars tolerant of diseases, for instance, and this way we could diminish the use of biocides to a great extent. The genetic engineering of plants tolerant of drought and changes in temperature would be equally crucial for our future.

European Academies of Sciences Advisory Council is a joint organ for European academies, and Eva-Mari Aro was appointed as a member of its board last year. EASAC produces research-based reports for the science political advisory of the EU.

More information:

>> Risks to Plant Health (EASAC)
>> How should we tackle the global risks to plant health? (Trends in Plant Science)

Text: Hannu Aaltonen
Photos: Barry Crabtree and Hanna Oksanen
Translation: Aura Jaakkola