ABSTRACT
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 272 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................................. 272 Canola Trials .................................................................................................................................. 273
Field Testing .............................................................................................................................. 273 Stress Tolerance Testing ................................................................................................................. 273
Frost Tolerance .......................................................................................................................... 273 Heat Tolerance........................................................................................................................... 274 High Temperature Tolerance Trials .......................................................................................... 274
Field Grown Materials ......................................................................................................... 274 Controlled Environment Trials............................................................................................. 274
Potato Trials ................................................................................................................................... 275 Drought-Stress Tolerance Trials................................................................................................ 275
Controlled Environment Trial .............................................................................................. 275 Field Trials ............................................................................................................................ 275
Results ............................................................................................................................................ 276 Emergence ................................................................................................................................. 276
Nonstressed Site ................................................................................................................... 276 Stressed Site ......................................................................................................................... 276
Maturity: Days to Flower and Maturity at Harvest ................................................................... 276 Nonstressed Site ................................................................................................................... 276
Seed Yield per Plant .................................................................................................................. 278 NonStressed Site ................................................................................................................... 278 Stressed Site ......................................................................................................................... 278
Abiotic Stress Tests ................................................................................................................... 279 Frost ...................................................................................................................................... 279 Heat ...................................................................................................................................... 279 Potato .................................................................................................................................... 279
INTRODUCTION
As a result of global climate change, weather patterns are changing much faster than anticipated. Global climate changes will affect water distribution, daily temperatures (both high and low), patterns of salinity, and nutrient availability. Abiotic stresses such as solar radiation, wind, drought, heat, chilling, frost, salinity, and nutrient imbalances and deciencies dramatically reduce yield and quality of crops. Plants will be more subject to attack by bacteria, viruses, fungi, nematodes, and competition from weeds. Growth and development will be reduced or retarded. Boyer (1982) suggested that there is a large genetic potential for yield that is unrealized because plants are either not adapted to their environment or do not acclimate quickly enough to an oncoming stress. Abiotic stress-caused yield and biomass losses can vary from 50% to 100%. In addition, many cultivated crops do not possess the proper stress-tolerance genes or the regulatory mechanism of the stress responses to ameliorate the abiotic stress.
