Preserving the nutritional quality of crop plants under a changing climate importance and strategies

• Published in: Plant and soil Vol. 443; no. 1/2; pp. 1 - 26
• Main Authors: Soares, José C., Santos, Carla S., Carvalho, Susana M. P., Pintado, Manuela M., Vasconcelos, Marta W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer Science + Business Media 01.10.2019; Springer International Publishing; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Availability; Beans; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Carbon dioxide; climate; Climate change; Climate effects; Cropping systems; Crops; Developmental stages; Drought; Ecology; Endangered species; Environmental impact; Farm management; Fertilizer industry; Food; Food composition; Food plants; genotype; Genotypes; Global climate; Global temperature changes; High temperature; Iron; Legumes; Life Sciences; MARSCHNER REVIEW; Microorganisms; Mimosaceae; Minerals; Nitrogen; Nutrient availability; nutrient content; Nutrient utilization; Nutrients; Nutrition; Nutritive value; phosphorus; Plant growth; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; potassium; Salinity; soil; Soil Science & Conservation; temperature; Waterlogging; Canada; United Kingdom; Climate change; Environmental factors; Minerals; Nutrient concentration; Elevated carbon dioxide
• ISSN: 0032-079X; 1573-5036
• DOI: 10.1007/s11104-019-04229-0

Background Global climate is changing more rapidly than ever, threatening plant growth and productivity while exerting considerable direct and indirect effects on the quality and quantity of plant nutrients. Scope This review focuses on the global impact of climate change on the nutritional value of plant foods. It showcases the existing evidence linking the effects of climate change factors on crop nutrition and the concentration of nutrients in edible plant parts. It focuses on the effect of elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ), elevated temperature (eT), salinity, waterlogging and drought stresses, and what is known regarding their direct and indirect influence on nutrient availability. Furthermore, it provides possible strategies to preserve the nutritional composition of plant foods under changing climates. Conclusions Climate change has an impact on the accumulation of minerals and protein in crop plants, with eCO 2 being the underlying factor of most of the reported changes. The effects are clearly dependent on the type, intensity and duration of the imposed stress, plant genotype and developmental stage. Strong interactions (both positive and negative) can be found between individual climatic factors and soil availability of nitrogen (N), potassium (K), iron (Fe) and phosphorous (P). The development of future interventions to ensure that the world's population has access to plentiful, safe and nutritious food may need to rely on breeding for nutrients under the context of climate change, including legumes in cropping systems, better farm management practices and utilization of microbial inoculants that enhance nutrient availability.