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

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

Climate change is already affecting Australia (mm/10yrs) Precipitation 10-20% less precipitation annually Mean Temperature +0.7 o C Atmospheric [CO 2 ] [350 – 395 µL L -1 ] Mediterranean Climate Region 24 M tonnes of wheat every year. 6 M tonnes of grain legumes

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

Increments in Temperature (Preston et al. 2006) 0.4–2.0°C °C 2050 Increments in climate variability (extreme events) (IPCC, 2007) More periods of extreme temperature and drought Spring 2030 increments 1 to 2°C Spring 2050 Larger increments In the wheat growing regions of Australia it is predicted

Predicted changes in climate pose a challenge for wheat production 7 | 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 Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

8 | 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? Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta Predicted changes in climate pose a challenge for wheat production

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

Selection for Wider Leaves Increases Embryo Length and Width C3 Selections 1.5mm

Isogenic lines for vigour CV207 - lowCV97 - High

Soil depth (m) CV207 – low vigour CV97 – high vigour 38-45% more root biomass 42-59% more N uptake

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

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

16 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta R High-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

Field tunnels for control of CO 2, temperature and drought

Scenarios Scenario1234 [CO 2 ] µmol mol TemperatureAmbient+2 o C+4 o C+6 o C Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

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

20 | WW TD WW TD Aboveground biomass

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

Scenarios Tunnel1234 [CO 2 ] µmol mol -1 Ambient 700 TemperatureAmbient+3 o CAmbient+3 o C Two sister lines for vigor: CV97 (high) CV207 (low) Two sister lines for tillering: 7750N (free) 7750PF (red)

Contrasting physiological responses of the vigorous and non-vigorous genotypes 23 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta Vigorous (3819)Non-vigorous (Janz) Rate of leaf net photosynthesisIncreased (69%) No response Leaf areaNo responseIncreased (30%) TilleringNo responseIncreased (39%) Transpiration rateIncreasedNo response Time to flowering--

Contrasting physiological responses of the reduced and free tillering genotypes 24 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta Reduced tilleringFree tillering Rate of leaf net photosynthesisIncreased (50%) No response Leaf areaNo responseIncreased (34%) TilleringNo responseIncreased (45%) Transpiration rateIncreasedNo response Time to flowering--

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

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

Multi-environment trials: candidate lines Tunnels and portable heat chambers: quantitative response of process genetic variation to mean T and heat shock Outputs 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 Glasshouse: screening/process understanding Genotypic response to temperature Experiments 27 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta

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

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

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 CO2?

32 | Climate Ready Cereals | Jairo A Palta Thank you