Securing Horticulture in a Changing Climate—A Mini Review

Abstract

(1) Background: Climate change is on the rise due to continuous greenhouse gas emissions from anthropogenic activities ever since the industrial revolution. Changing weather conditions are likely to have consequences for horticulture. (2) Objective and Methods: A short literature review was conducted, gathering findings on climate change and the impacts on the yield and product quality of special crops. (3) Results: Global warming will result in elevated temperatures and CO2 concentrations in all seasons. Extreme weather events such as heat waves are also on the increase. In vegetables, physiological processes such as vernalization and winter chilling strongly rely on temperature. Therefore, heat stress may cause irregularities in yield production and planning the harvest. For fruit crops, frost poses a risk that is enhanced through climate change, as does a lack of chilling, as cold temperatures in the winter are required for flowering in the spring. Abiotic disorders in horticulture are also related to changing temperatures and humidity. The nutritional quality of special crops may be threatened by increasing rates of plant development and premature ripening at high temperatures. Quality traits such as sugars, acids, or antioxidant capacity may also shift as well. (4) Conclusions: Adapting to these new climate conditions means developing new climate-resilient varieties to maintain high production levels with superior quality. In this mini review, cultivation measures to mitigate adverse climate impacts are also discussed. Current developments and recent findings are presented, pointing out further steps toward adaptation and sustainable production.

Interaction of Tomato Genotypes and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi under Reduced Irrigation

“…Climate change can affect water availability in many agricultural areas [11,13]. Water management is a crucial factor for processing tomato, and limited availability of water resources in terms of both irrigation volumes and quality could reduce fruit yield and quality [13,32]. Hence, farmers and researchers are facing this problem in every operation of the production system.…”

“…Hence, the excessive use of water for irrigation [11], combined with the effects of climate change [10,12], will limit the availability of fresh water for irrigation [10] even at early crop growth stages. As processing tomato requires huge volumes of irrigation water for their growth, a more scarce water availability during the growth cycle could lead to a decrease in fruit yield and quality [13].…”

Interactive Effects of the CO2 Enrichment and Nitrogen Supply on the Biomass Accumulation, Gas Exchange Properties, and Mineral Elements Concentrations in Cucumber Plants at Different Growth Stages

“…Moreover, the available information about the optimum N supply under different elevated [CO 2 ] is extremely limited. A better understanding of the concentration changes of mineral elements in cucumber plant responding to elevated [CO 2 ] and N supplies is necessary for optimizing [CO 2 ] and N fertilization in order to obtain high quality greenhouse products with higher C and N use efficiency [34,35] and to deal with future climate change scenarios with less CO 2 emission and fertilizer input [36,37].…”

Identifying System-Related Barriers for the Development and Implementation of Eco-Innovation in the German Horticultural Sector

“…The German horticultural sector faces several challenges [8,19,20], including the need to reduce the amount of fossil fuels for energy and heating in greenhouse production or compliance with increasing consumer demands. As of now, heating for greenhouses accounts for 2647.7 Gwh, of which 28% is from black coal, 21% from natural gas and 15% from fuel oil; renewable sources make up for appr.…”

“…The introduction of eco-innovations intends to reduce negative environmental externalities and can possibly drive down operating costs in a sector that is characterized by heterogeneity and has experienced structural change and rationalization during the past 25 years [8,17,18]. Reducing emissions and using energy efficient technology, energy management practices or meeting increased consumer expectations could potentially make horticultural businesses more competitive, but would also contribute to national and global climate objectives, which is a major challenge for horticultural and agricultural value chains [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. However, EM is a multi-faceted process that includes organizational, societal, market or ecological considerations, subsuming different types of innovation such as techniques, practices, processes or services [10,11].…”