Climate Impacts on Crops and Turfgrass: Building Effective Adaptation Strategies

Climate change is occurring and is impacting biological systems through increased temperatures, more variable precipitation, and increased CO₂ in the atmosphere. These effects have been documented for agricultural species, primarily grain crops, pasture and rangeland species. The extension of these relationships to turfgrass has been limited; however, these plants are an important part of our ecosystems and preservation of these plantings adds to social value and ecosystem services. Turfgrasses can be divided into cool-season and warm-season species and the projected changes in maximum air temperatures, along with increased root zone temperatures may promote a Northward migration of warm-season turfgrasses. Increased spring precipitation and more variable summer precipitation coupled with more intense precipitation events are projected to occur requiring enhanced management of soil water. Turfgrass management to ensure adequate root zone soil water, and the selection of varieties or species with greater drought tolerance in the warmer regions will be necessary to preserve turfgrass plantings. Increases in CO₂ benefits turfgrass growth and positively affects water use efficiency, which decreases the potential effects of a more variable precipitation regime because of impacts on soil water use. Genotypic variation in response to soil water deficits provides a foundation for screening turfgrass species to adapt to climatic stresses. Changes in temperature and precipitation variation will increase the potential for abiotic and biotic stresses on turfgrasses. Turfgrass management will require increased attention to increased abiotic and biotic stresses.