"Where Will 'Amber Waves of Grain' Grow in a Climate-Changed World?"

"Giving new meaning to toasted wheat, a team of agricultural researchers has spent the past three years and almost a million dollars installing electric heaters over wheat fields in the desert of Maricopa, Ariz.

Called the "Hot Serial Cereal" project, the experiment is not a move to tempt breakfast-eaters in the morning, but rather to simulate a temperature rise of 2 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit -- the predicted global average increase for the next 50 years.

While there is a general consensus that tropical regions will be feeling most of the heat from climate change, no one knows exactly how agriculture and food patterns are going to pan out in a greenhouse gas-affected world. So researchers around the globe are setting up experiments in wheat fields to match -- or refute -- theoretical models. Some experiments use heaters, while others spray concentrated carbon dioxide on plants, copying an expected rise in atmospheric CO2."

Tiffany Stecker reports a multi-part series for ClimateWire March 29, 2011.

SEE ALSO:

"Companies Begin a Difficult Search for a Climate-Hardy Wheat Variety" (ClimateWire)

"Going Back Into the Wild to Build a Stronger, More Climate-Resilient Wheat Crop" (ClimateWire)