Problems
Global warming is attributed to elevated heat-trapping greenhouses gases. So, greenhouse gases and rising temperatures often co-occur and worsen crop health and productivity. Tropospheric ozone (O3) is one of the most harmful greenhouse gases. It negatively impacts crop health and yield, as well as agricultural ecosystems. However, how ozone interacts with other environmental stresses and greenhouse gases is not well understood. While the race is on to mitigate global greenhouse gas emissions, there is an accompanying urgency to enhance knowledge of plant responses to elevated ozone and co-occurring rising temperatures. We hope our research contributions can come up with direct solutions to tackle future air pollution and climate threats on food security.
Approaches
Identifying climate-resilient crops
Unfortunately, most environmental stress-tolerant crops are only resilient to a single stressor. In collaboration with soybean and wheat breeders, Dr. Burkey screens for genetic variants tolerant to both elevated ozone and heat using the Temperature Gradient Greenhouse (TGG, for heat stress) and Open-top chambers (OTCs, for ozone stress). To assess ozone and heat resilience, we further test plants with separated and combined elevated ozone and heat using the Field-based Climate Change System (FCCS, for heat + ozone stress) and characterize stress-resilient traits and crop yield.
Determining plant molecular, biochemical, and physiological responses under environmental stresses
Concurrent greenhouse gas emissions and warming may cause synergistic and antagonistic effects on plants and their interactions with soil microorganisms. To understand the molecular and biochemical regulations that account for physiological responses under greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, we have applied "multi-omic" approaches as well as physiological measurements to reveal this knowledge gap.
Investigating plant roots and soil microbe interaction
Roots directly interact with soil environments and soil microbes while supporting plant fitness by absorbing water and nutrients. Evidence shows environmental stresses, including air pollution and rising temperatures, often rapidly impact root growth and interactions between roots and soil microbes, which essentially affects plant performance. However, impacts of these stresses on roots have been overlooked. We put special emphasis on characterizing root molecular and biochemical responses to climate change and on identifying soil microbial network dynamics associated with carbon and nitrogen allocation in the agricultural eco-system.