Crop adaptation to future climates Climate ready wheat

Crop adaptation to future climates: Climate ready wheat Jairo A Palta CSIRO - Principal Research Scientist – Adjunct Research Professor, UWA 21 Nov 2014

Why adapting wheat to future climates? • Climatic conditions across the wheat growing regions of world are predicted to change. The Mediterranean climatic region of Australia is included 2 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

The Mediterranean climatic region of Australia • 24 M tonnes of wheat per year. 85% of wheat production in Australia. Total export worth $6 billion per year sowing ETpot 3 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta grain fill

Climate change is already affecting Australia • 1960 -2008 (mm/10 yrs) Precipitation 10 -20% less precipitation annually Mean Temperature +0. 7 o. C Mediterranean Climate Region 24 M tonnes of wheat every year. 6 M tonnes of grain legumes Atmospheric [CO 2] [350 – 395 µL L-1]

Predicted changes in climate • Increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentration • Increases in ambient temperatures • Reducing rainfall (increasing the incidence of drought) 5 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

In the wheat growing regions of Australia it is predicted • Increments in Temperature (Preston et al. 2006) • 0. 4– 2. 0°C 2030 • 2 -4°C 2050 Spring 2030 increments 1 to 2°C • Increments in climate variability (extreme events) • (IPCC, 2007) • More periods of extreme temperature and drought Spring 2050 Larger increments

Predicted changes in climate pose a challenge for wheat production • These changes pose a challenge for wheat production in Australia, particularly for pre-breeding and breeding as new wheat cultivars adapted to these changes will be required • Selection for drought and high temperature has been a challenge • Drought and high temperature environments are difficult to reproduce to ensure selection pressure • Drought and high temperature tolerance are under strong G X E X M interaction • Approach: selecting for specific traits for specific environments 7 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Predicted changes in climate pose a challenge for wheat production • Approach: selecting for specific traits for specific environments • Crop physiologist and breeders have been successful in identifying traits and selecting using them for improving tolerance to terminal drought and heat stress • Are the current genetic traits that adapt crops to stress continue to have a positive effect under projected future climates? 8 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

RHigh-yielding traits in wheat: 1. Early vigour • Wider Leaves • Greater Leaf Area • Larger roots

Selection for Wider Leaves Increases Embryo Length and Width C 3 Selections 1. 5 mm

Isogenic lines for vigour CV 207 - low CV 97 - High

CV 207 – low vigour CV 97 – high vigour 0. 1 0. 2 Soil depth (m) 0. 3 0. 4 0. 5 0. 6 0. 7 0. 8 0. 9 1. 0 38 -45% more root biomass 42 -59% more N uptake

RHigh-yielding traits in wheat: 2. Reduced tillering vigour 13 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

RHigh-yielding traits in wheat: 2. Reduced tillering vigour

RHigh-yielding traits in wheat: 2. Reduced tillering vigour 15 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

RHigh-yielding traits in wheat 3. Water soluble Carbohydrates (WSC) vigour • There are genetic variability in WSC content in wheat • Genotypes of wheat with high accumulation of WSC have high grain yield under terminal drought. • High WSC is considered as an insurance to grain yield 16 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Field tunnels for control of CO 2, temperature and drought

Scenarios Scenario [CO 2] µmol mol-1 Temperature Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta 1 2 3 4 380 700 700 Ambient +2 o. C +4 o. C +6 o. C

Wheat genotypes RSL for vigour 38 -19 cv. Janz RSL for vigour 38 -19 cv. Janz Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Aboveground biomass WW WW TD TD 20 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Grain yield WW TD 21 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta WW TD

Scenarios Tunnel 1 2 3 4 [CO 2] µmol mol-1 Ambient 700 Temperature Ambient +3 o. C • Two sister lines for vigor: CV 97 (high) CV 207 (low) • Two sister lines for tillering: 7750 N (free) 7750 PF (red)

Contrasting physiological responses of the vigorous and non-vigorous genotypes Vigorous (3819) Non-vigorous (Janz) Increased (69%) No response Leaf area No response Increased (30%) Tillering No response Increased (39%) Transpiration rate Increased No response Time to flowering - - Rate of leaf net photosynthesis 23 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Contrasting physiological responses of the reduced and free tillering genotypes Reduced tillering Free tillering Increased (50%) No response Leaf area No response Increased (34%) Tillering No response Increased (45%) Transpiration rate Increased No response Time to flowering - - Rate of leaf net photosynthesis 24 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

ECO 2 can partially ameliorate terminal drought effects in ‘field-like’ conditions • Under current conditions, terminal drought reduced yield by 50% • Under ECO 2 (700 ppm) and +2 o. C scenario, drought yield reduction was 27% • Part of the terminal drought effect was ameliorated by ECO 2 25 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Climate Ready wheat • Identify useful adaptive traits in wheat germplasm for future climate changes. • Validate potential traits using diverse experimental germplasm lines • Develop methodologies to characterise traits for use in the screening of germplasm • The project does not aim to develop germplasm or recommendations for growers

Genotypic response to temperature Experiments Multi-environment trials: candidate lines Tunnels and portable heat chambers: quantitative response of process genetic variation to mean T and heat shock Outputs Glasshouse: screening/process understanding • Quantitative response of growth and development to T and G variation around them. • Traits for heat tolerance • Drought traits tested under high T • Phenotyping methods for heat stress • Screened germplasm • Pilot gene expression work 27 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

Estimation of cover: NIR image extracted from 10 minute flight plan (20 m altitude)

Monitoring cover and senescence in heat trials 2 nd Sep 2010 to 29 th Oct 2010 Gaps Lodging

Phenotyping adaptive traits WSC can be monitored by crop reflectance Spectral signatures Stem WSC for grain filling Rapid identification of potential parents and offspring with higher WSC and better ‘drought tolerance’?

Phenotyping adaptive traits ‘Cool’ or ‘Hot’ genotypes - infrared technology • • • During photosynthesis, plants open their stomata and ‘lose’ water ‘cool’ genotypes – maintain water supply under ‘good’ conditions ‘hot’ genotypes – ‘saving’ water under heat/drought conditions? Which genotype do we need and where? What happens under high CO 2?

Thank you 32 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta