T ‐FACE studies reveal that increased temperature exerts an effect opposite to that of elevated CO2 on nutrient concentration and bioavailability in rice and wheat grains

The combined elevated CO2 and temperature increased concentrations of some minerals but resulted in lower grain yields, thereby did not significantly change the yields of some minerals. The combined CO2 and temperature elevation increased phytic acid concentrations but limited the mineral bioavailability. Our results indicate that elevated temperature cancelled out the effect of elevated CO2, thereby, to a large extent, safeguarding the nutritional quality of rice and wheat under climate change. AbstractElevated CO2 concentration has been reported to decrease grain nutrient concentrations and thus worsen nutritional deficiency and hidden hunger. One nutritional aspect is mineral content, yet mineral bioavailability can be limited by the presence of phytic acid. Given that future climate scenarios predict elevated global temperature driven by elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, we used Temperature by Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (T-FACE) field experiments to investigate whether elevated temperature alters the effects of elevated CO2 on grain mineral concentrations, grain mineral yields, and their bioavailability in a range of wheat and rice genotypes. We found that the negative effects of elevated CO2 were compensated for by positive effects of elevated temperature. As a result, the combined elevated CO2 and elevated temperature increased concentrations of some minerals by up to ~15% in both rice and wheat relative to control conditions. Moreover, the combined elevated CO2 and...
Source: Food and Energy Security - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research