Climate change: warmer winters would jeopardize fruit and vegetable production in areas of Chile
Researchers at the Center for Genomics and Biotechnology at the Universidad Mayor (Chile) unveiled a recent study in which they suggest that the increase in temperatures during recent winter cycles could have a negative impact on the development of stone trees in the area central of the country.
The results of the study were presented in the first weeks of September during the debate on tolerance and acclimatization of the cold of the plants organized by the University of Wisconsin, which was based in that North American city.
One of the points of the study in which more emphasis was made has to do with the fact that the hours of cold that the fruit trees need for their optimal development in the harvests have diminished considerably.
"Winter cold leads to epigenetic alternations in specific regions of its genome that are directly related to the flowering process. The lack of cold alters the kinetics of these molecular modifications, resulting in a heterogeneous flowering in spring ", highlights the work.
Andrea Miyasaka, who led the research, said that for fruit production to be good, its flowering has to be good too. "The floral buds, which contain the flowers, are produced in summer and open in spring," adds the scientist.
He adds that in order for these flowers to finally be able to open, they need to accumulate certain hours of cold, but if the weather conditions are not there, he said, obviously they will not form properly.
"An hour of cold corresponds precisely to an hour under temperatures that oscillate between the 4 and the 7 degrees Celsius. This is the indicator that points to the tree that spent the winter, "said Miyasaka.
He also made reference to the fact that, in the case of the stones of the central zone of Chile, for the induction of flowering, the cold factor is even more important than the access to water and even that the quantity of light to which they are exposed .
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For the research of the Genomics and Biotechnology Center of the Universidad Mayor, floral buds from the winter season were analyzed, whose flowering was later induced in greenhouses that simulated a spring climate.
The samples were then sent to a laboratory, from where different genomic analyzes were made, in order to establish the amount of cold required by each variety that was being studied.
According to Andrea Miyasaka, the data they have collected from the research would be key to the development of new fruit varieties, which would have a better adaptation to phenomena related to climate change.
"The Chilean scientific community agrees on one thing, and that is that we will eventually have much hotter winters with little rain. These conditions could certainly affect the country's fruit and vegetable industry, "Miyasaka replied.
For the researcher Andrea Miyasaka, the issue of climate change is not new. In fact, a good part of the last decade was devoted to investigating the flowering processes of cherry trees in the O'Higgins region and how certain patterns have changed since then.
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