Articles
A cultural heritage under climate change: challenges and hope for wild blueberries
Article number
1440_61
Pages
445 – 454
Language
English
Abstract
The wild blueberry production system is a semi-natural agricultural system with naturally growing lowbush blueberry plants managed to form berry-producing fields.
While this cultural heritage developed by indigenous native American people has been sustained for a long time, it is now facing the threat of novel climate change.
Anthropogenic climate change includes elevated CO2 concentrations, warming, as well as increased climate variabilities.
These climate changes will not only alter crop physiology, phenology, and growth, but also change the activities of pollinators, diseases, and weeds.
Indeed, warming has already extended the growing season of wild blueberries, and climatic disturbances such as spring frost, summer drought, and fall warm spells in recent years have been impacting wild blueberry production.
However, there are still many uncertainties on how climate change will affect wild blueberries and how the wild blueberry system will respond.
Here, we aimed to review climate change patterns of wild blueberry fields, challenges imposed by climate change, potential benefits associated with climate change, and techniques that could be used to mitigate the potential negative effects of climate change to better plan for the future.
Both positive and negative effects of climate warming on wild blueberries have been summarized based on recent studies.
The potential effects of warming on pollination, disease infection, and novel pests need to be further studied.
Novel management techniques including soil amendment using biochar and mulch, foliar fertilizer applications, and precision agriculture tools, could potentially be used to sustain wild blueberry production under climate change.
The benefits and challenges of applying these techniques to wild blueberry fields are discussed in this review.
While this cultural heritage developed by indigenous native American people has been sustained for a long time, it is now facing the threat of novel climate change.
Anthropogenic climate change includes elevated CO2 concentrations, warming, as well as increased climate variabilities.
These climate changes will not only alter crop physiology, phenology, and growth, but also change the activities of pollinators, diseases, and weeds.
Indeed, warming has already extended the growing season of wild blueberries, and climatic disturbances such as spring frost, summer drought, and fall warm spells in recent years have been impacting wild blueberry production.
However, there are still many uncertainties on how climate change will affect wild blueberries and how the wild blueberry system will respond.
Here, we aimed to review climate change patterns of wild blueberry fields, challenges imposed by climate change, potential benefits associated with climate change, and techniques that could be used to mitigate the potential negative effects of climate change to better plan for the future.
Both positive and negative effects of climate warming on wild blueberries have been summarized based on recent studies.
The potential effects of warming on pollination, disease infection, and novel pests need to be further studied.
Novel management techniques including soil amendment using biochar and mulch, foliar fertilizer applications, and precision agriculture tools, could potentially be used to sustain wild blueberry production under climate change.
The benefits and challenges of applying these techniques to wild blueberry fields are discussed in this review.
Publication
Authors
Y.-J. Zhang
Keywords
traditional knowledge, biochar, resilience, Vaccinium angustifolium, drought, adaptation, climate change mitigation
Online Articles (74)