REPLACING today鈥檚 crops with strains that reflect more sunlight could help fight global warming.
Plants reflect some of the incoming solar energy back into space. The proportion a particular plant reflects, known as its albedo, depends on the shape, size and waxiness of its leaves, and can vary within varieties of a species.
Andy Ridgwell鈥檚 team at the University of Bristol, UK, studied the effect of a global switch to higher-albedo varieties of all crops. They found that temperate regions would benefit the most. For example, in North America and Eurasia, where farmland dominates, temperatures could drop by as much as 1 掳C during the summer (Current Biology, ).
Advertisement
鈥淐limate change mitigation through plant breeding is a novel idea that merits consideration,鈥� says Eric Kueneman of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
