Climate change is a diverse, multifactorial phenomenon, meaning that the agronomic strategies needed are case-specific and will have regional differences. This book provides an integrated view of the challenges and opportunities that will face agriculture in the future as a result of climate change. It discusses how the stresses resulting from climate change can be overcome by assessing, measuring and predicting environmental changes and stresses, identifying opportunities and adapting to change and responding to multifactorial change. Challenges and potential strategies that might be taken to overcome these are illustrated using a number of case studies.
1. Introduction
2. Global change and the origins of agriculture
3. Global change more than just environment: recreating scenarios
4. Methodological approaches to monitor global change: from the plant to the ecosystem
5. Molecular breeding for changing climate: bridging ecophysiology and molecular biology
6. Photosynthetic increases and crop yield breakthrough: myths and reality
7. The impact of elevated CO2 in plants
8. Fine-tuning plant development patterns to maximize productivity
9. Phenology and crop adaptation to stress
10. Breeding to improve grain yield in water-limited environments: the CSIRO experience
11. Agronomic avenues to cope with global challenges in Mediterranean systems
12. Agronomic avenues to cope with global challenges in Nordic agriculture
13. Recent changes in Pampean agriculture: possible new avenues to cope with global change challenges
14. Agronomic avenues to cope with global change in Asian irrigated rice systems
15. Global change challenges for horticultural systems
16. The way ahead: from science to policy; coordinating efforts in a global world
17. Crop management to cope with global change: a systems perspective aided by information technologies