Climate change is real and over the years the weather parameters are changing, so the global hydrological cycle, atmospheric circulation, bio-geochemical cycles also changing. But to some extent can't we say nature have that power to adapt all these changes and nature have the power of self mitigation and adaptation from these climate extremes. We know our population is increasing and so our food production and I think in my childhood, I could sense 6 seasons in a year i.e. Summer, Spring, Monsson, Autumn, Winter and Prevernal but now I can only sense 3 i.e. Summer, Monsoon and winter, but we are still existing and plants are also still existing in this Earth even the gradual spike of mean annual temperature and CO2.
So, my verdict is plant can accommodate with the environment, because the change is gradual one. Let me know as a researcher what my scientific community think about it. Should we really think about it seriously and if yes then at what point it may reach the threshold climate extremities ????
“what point it may reach the threshold climate extremities”
My quick reaction: Collective endeavor to impede greenhouse gases emission will decide the level of climate extremities. Importantly, convincing the urgency of reducing CO2 on a global scale is a real challenge.
In my opinion the data are now evident, the global warming is present and it's increment rate is increasing. Last data from IPCC shows and increase of 0,2 °C in the last 5 years (at a global level, respect to the previous five years) while the total increase from 1850 up to now is of 1,1 °C. Plants, as all the biological organisms, can in part adapt their physiology to different growing conditions, but there is a theshold. We are experiencing as several plant species are extending or reducing their areal of growth (and in the past were observed several migration of some plant species to different latitudes as a consequences of climate variations); global change is expected to produce a long series of effects impacting on plants. At best, even without wanting to hypothesize catastrophic scenarios, the impact on the food could be very high. So, concording with IPPC, I think are urgent actions of mitigation (reducinc greenhouse gases in atmosphere) to reduce the future warming. This is only considering plants, then considerations could be done for humans, animals, infrasstructure, and so on....
Regards
Climate change has a significant impact on the agricultural output. So, you could have a look at these researches which carried out in Iraq, the country suffering severe droughts events. Best.
Book Environmental Remote Sensing and GIS in Iraq
Chapter Agricultural Drought Monitoring over Iraq utilizing MODIS Products.
Chapter Drought Monitoring Using Spectral and Meteorological Based I...
Article Spatio-Temporal Assessment of Drought Impacts on the Agricul...
Conference Paper Sand dunes monitoring using remote sensing and GIS technique...
Article Soil salinity prediction and mapping by machine learning reg...
Article Drought mapping using Geoinformation technology for some sit...
Article Land Degradation Detection Using Geo-Information Technology ...
Conference Paper Environmental Change Monitoring by Geoinformation Technology...
It has had a negative impact in my area this year with many crops not harvested. The conditions were not right, either too wet, too dry, too much humidity, etc.
The farmers are a bit alarmed and some have lost money. This is very unusual for this area.
Considering agriculture as a system, in addition to addressing climatic impacts on its elements, like plants, livestock, management etc., one can certainly say that the most recent two decades posed a special challenge in that the climatic "hiatus", i.e. the more or less clear stagnation (in the mean) of surface air temperature at planetary scale, was accompanied by an unusually pronounced climate variability. Between the two strong ENSO events of 1997/98 and 2015/16, we experienced a climate regime with none of its seasons proceeding in a similar way as the previous one. This posed a dynamic stress to the whole system and its compartments that hinders adaptation. Take the farmers, for example, who are uncertain about the kind of seeds to order in due time. Take the seasonal march of 2018 and 2019, for another example, that differed fundamentally - notably with respect to temporal and spatial scales of effects, less so much to the overall character in terms of temperature and precipitation sums (both agricultural seasons were "too hot" and "too dry" in our region, Berlin-Brandenburg - Germany). Though agriculture bears a large potential of measures for adaptation, the production becomes substabtially disturbed not only by heatwaves and flooding, but also by the pace and direction of changes in the succession of climatic effects. The erratic character of changes during the "hiatus" regime was certainly a new challenge to agriculture.
Clearly yes, severe impact starting already now - having successive 3.5 months without rain last year here in N Germany, an area usually known for reliable rain, this is alarming, farmers were suffering. The way forward for trees/forests has been shown by Anderegg et al (2018) - is via diversity of plant species, health and diversity in age/ diversity in root system. For crops etc, supporting seed banks with all local variations of any kind of important plant species will help to adapt to future climate. Resistance to drought, heat, flooding, wind, pests - this can be preserved and further developed based on natural variations of species.
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