FUTU-RYE
Climate change poses a serious threat to the economies of countries like Ireland that are heavily dependent on the agricultural sector. Approximately 50% of Ireland’s total landmass consists of agricultural grasslands, providing forage for the flourishing beef and dairy industries. Perennial rye-grass (Lolium perenne) is the key component of the most productive pastures and the most important forage grass accounting for 95% of all grass seeds sold in the country. Since Irish agriculture is a grass-based industry, the impact of climate change on grass physiology and primary productivity is of particular importance for the country. The few studies that have tried to investigate the responses of rye-grass to climate change focused almost entirely on the responses of the species to rising CO2, thus overlooking predicted changes in future temperature and rainfall patterns that can have a substantial impact on species responses. Furthermore, none of these studies attempted to trace favourable traits under future climatic conditions among different rye-grass genotypes despite the species high intraspecific genetic variation. This highly innovative project is going to address this gap in our knowledge by screening a wide range of perennial/annual rye-grass and festuca genotypes for increased yield under simulated future climatic conditions using a state-of-the-art suite of growth chambers. We will conduct a whole plant phenotypic, physiological and biochemical analysis and identify key traits associated with increased productivity and resilience under high atmospheric CO2, increased temperature and normal/decreased water availability. We anticipate our holistic approach to have a great impact on the field of plant-climate interactions and to put UCD and Teagasc at the forefront of climate change biology research. In the long term, we anticipate our project to form the base of a future collaboration with agricultural biotechnology companies and yield practical benefits for the Irish economy and farmers worldwide