Explainer Volume 2 – 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fsci.2024.1416023 This is part of an article hub Explore article hub Read lead article Although the world’s population is growing, the yield from the staple crops which anchor our diets is falling. This is due to stresses caused by the climate crisis, such as droughts and flooding. Our crops are currently optimized for high yields rather than stress tolerance, so they are ill-equipped to continue producing food in these conditions. We could produce more food by expanding agricultural land, but this would damage biodiversity and threaten the planet’s fragile ecological balance. Writing in Frontiers in Science , Prof Michael Palmgren and Prof Sergey Shabala discuss our options for solving this problem: genetically altering high-yield plants to cope better with new conditions, or domesticating wild plants with higher stress tolerance to improve their yields. This explainer summarizes the article’s main points. How does the climate crisis affect crop yields? Many factors impact a crop’s yield, or how much food each plant produces. Most staple crops are optimized to produce high yields in relatively reliable conditions and relatively cool temperatures. Abiotic stresses—stresses caused by non-biological agents that change these conditions—affect production. The climate crisis worsens these stresses. For instance, rising temperatures lower most crops’ yield, and drought lowers them further. One estimate suggests that by 2050, 50% of yield for staple crops could be lost to drought. The reverse, flooding, also damages yield: waterlogged soil prevents the roots of most crops from taking up oxygen. To cope with higher temperatures and drought, farmers irrigate their fields. However, because freshwater is in short supply, the water which is used for this is generally brackish. Over time, the salt from this water builds up in the soil, and the land becomes impossible to cultivate. Why can’t current […]