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When people think of climate change, they often think of a future with extreme storms, bringing too much water.But scientists in Texas and California are planning for a future with a lot less.USC professor Sarah Feakins spoke to VOA by Skype.“It’s always a challenge having enough water for plants to grow, and especially in dry years,so that’s the motivation behind trying to figure out if we can develop crops that are more resistant to drought.”
Feakins says higher temperatures mean higher rates of evaporation and that means potentially less water for everyone.So the research team began planting crops and not giving them enough water.“So here we are looking at these...these wheat varieties and they have been bred.They’ve been bred also about ten years selecting for traits that mean that they will grow well in the dry conditions of Texas.And so we’re simply saying which of these ten cultivars perform better in dry conditions,in the different sites, in the different soils, and in the different climates.”
What Feakins and her team learn is that when things get hot, or plants get deprived of water,they produce more of the natural wax that coats their leaves, the more wax on the leaves, the more water stays in the plant.
“So at the higher and drier location when we grow the same crops, ten different cultivars, all of them produce more wax.It’s a little bit like on a dry day. You know, you might put some lip balm on your lips.Plants actually put more wax on the surface of their leaves at the drier location.”
The team was able to grow bountiful crops with 25 percent less water.And they learned one other surprising thing: The wax that coats plant leaves also holds carbon.
“If we can double the wax in these plants, it might actually help the sequestrate carbon in the soils.”That’s an added bonus in a future that will likely have too much carbon and not enough water.
Kevin Enochs, VOA News.
