Temperatures above 30^oC decrease leaf growth in strawberry under global warming

ABSTRACT

Productivity in strawberry is dependent on carbon assimilation in the leaves. The main scenarios for climate change include an increase in the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere and an increase in temperature. This review examined the relationship between leaf growth and temperature in strawberry. Leaf growth follows a linear, sigmoid or Gaussian pattern over the season or is variable depending on the weather. There was a linear increase in leaf growth with temperatures below 26°C, and a linear decrease in growth with temperatures above 26°C. In other studies, the mean lower optimum for 90% of maximum growth was 18.3° ± 3.9°C, the median was 19.6°C, and the range was from 7.2° to 22.0°C (N = 11). The mean higher optimum was 27.3° ± 3.6°C, the median was 27.4°C, and the range was from 21.1° to 33.5°C (N = 12). Leaf growth was higher under 30°C and lower above 30°C. Limited studies suggest that elevated CO₂ will not counteract the impact of high temperatures on growth. Climate change will increase leaf growth in cool areas and decrease growth in warm areas. The decrease in leaf growth in locations with temperatures above 30°C will contribute to lower yields under global warming.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• concentration of CO₂
• global warming
• temperature
• yield

Acknowledgement

The Queensland Government funded the research through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Financial support from the Florida Strawberry Growers’ Association (FSGA) is appreciated. Special thanks to Helen Macpherson, Danielle Hoffmann and Cheryl Petroeschevsky from DAF for supplying much of the literature. Many thanks to Dr Alicja Banasiak from the Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Poland for the image of the shoot apical meristem (Figure 1) and to B.F Chabot and J.F. Chabot for the photographs of the anatomy of Fragaria vesca (Figure 9).

Data availability statement

The author confirms that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the supplementary materials published online with this paper or available from the author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14620316.2024.2360452

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Florida Strawberry Research and Education Foundation [HF 11069].