The impact of an extreme climatic disturbance and different fertilization treatments on plant development, phenology, and yield of two cultivar groups of Solanum betaceum Cav.

Abstract

Changing climatic conditions impose a challenge both to biodiversity and food security. The effects of climate change affect different aspects of the plant or crop, such as morphological and phenological aspects, as well as yield. The effects of greenhouse conditions might be comparable in some cases to a permanent extreme disturbance in climate and weather, thus, contributing to our knowledge on climate change impacts on plant species. We have investigated the differences for 23 traits in two cultivar groups of an Andean traditional crop, Solanum betaceum, under two different environmental conditions that correspond to the traditional practices in the open field and three cultural managements under greenhouse conditions (no fertilization or control, organic, and mineral). We found that traditional practices in the open field are the less productive. Moreover, in warmer and drier conditions the treatment with organic fertilization was the most productive. Greenhouse conditions, however, delay production. We further identified traits that differentiate both cultivar groups and traits that are linked to either the new climate conditions or the fertilization treatments. Fruit characteristics were quite homogeneous between the two cultivar groups. Overall, our results provide insight on the consequences that climate change effects might exert on crops such as tree tomato, reveal that greenhouses can be a robust alternative for tree tomato production, and highlight the need to understand how different managements are linked to different solutions to fulfil the farmers’ demands.

The Global Potential Distribution of Invasive Plants: Anredera cordifolia under Climate Change and Human Activity Based on Random Forest Models

“…It is well-known that other climatic factors, such as moisture balance and extreme temperature events, also determine plant distribution [67][68][69]. Numerous studies have shown that local moisture balance and extreme temperature events will affect the physiological characteristics of plants, such as yield, florescence, and tolerance [70,71]. Under the climate change, biochemical interaction will also affect the adaptability of species to the environment [72][73][74].…”

Functional and Antioxidant Evaluation of Two Ecotypes of Control and Grafted Tree Tomato (Solanum betaceum) at Different Altitudes

“…Tree tomato pulp has been documented to contain various components such as dietary fibre, starch, soluble sugars (sucrose, glucose and fructose), organic acid (e.g., malic and citric acids), vitamins (e.g., C, B2, B6, and E), phenolic compounds (e.g., anthocyanins, chlorogenic acid, hydroxycinnamic acid), carotenoids (e.g., β-carotene, lutein), terpenoids, steroids, saponins, alkaloids, tannins, proteins, essential amino acids (e.g., glutamic acid, leucine, serine, aspartic acid, and glycine) and minerals (e.g., potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc) [ 5 , 6 ]. However, the phytochemical composition and fruit quality of tree tomatoes are influenced by various genetic and environmental factors such as light, altitude, temperature, water availability, pre-harvest conditions, rootstock, crop load, fruit position within the tree, cultural practices, and industrial processes [ 1 , 4 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”

Predicting the distribution of the invasive species Hyptis suaveolens in Nigeria

“…It is well known that other climatic factors, such as moisture balance and extreme temperatures, determine plant distribution (Stephenson 1990;Widrlechner et al 2012;Zhang et al 2020). Several studies report the effect of moisture and extreme temperatures on the physiological characteristics of plants, such as growth, yield, flowering and tolerance (Tandazo-Yung et al 2017;Song et al 2018).…”