Projects

The results obtained will be published as abstracts in congresses and symposiums focused on coffee growing, as well as scientific articles indexed in international databases and the registration of cultivars. They will also be passed on to farmers during field days and lectures at symposiums, promoting dissemination and extension.

The results obtained will be published as abstracts in congresses and symposiums focusing on tree/shade-grown coffee, as well as in scientific articles indexed in international databases and the registration of cultivars. They will also be passed on to farmers during field days and lectures at symposiums, promoting dissemination and extension.

Global warming threatens coffee crop sustainability through flower infertility. An integrated approach to unveil flower developmental disturbances and a potential protective role of elevated air CO2.

Agriculture is closely dependent on climate variables, with climate changes already affecting the world's production of many crops, especially crops depending on the reproductive structures, which are heat sensitive. Is therefore crucial to understand the relation between temperature and the reproductive development of plants, as well as the interaction with the increased air [CO2] (eCO2), in order to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies to promote productivity under the future climatic conditions. Based on recent advances, the number of reference genomes of high quality has significantly increased, fostering studies regarding the existing genetic diversity needed to improve crop resilience to climate changes. In this way, a growing number of studies concerning the genes and metabolic pathways involved in abiotic stress response has been developed, mainly in vegetative structures, although reproductive processes (from flower development to fruit maturation) are among the most sensitive to abiotic stresses, with large impacts on crop yield and nutritional quality. Above, a given threshold (depending on species/genotype), high temperature can severely constrain molecular pathways linked to reproductive development, resulting in sterile flowers and low levels of fruit set, even when vegetative structures can cope with warming. Is therefore of paramount importance to deepen the molecular knowledge regarding how flower development is affected by warming and/or eCO2, to access the potential impact for the productivity of the main crops (and ecosystems), among them coffee. This is among the most important crops worldwide, from which the livelihoods of ca. 25 million farmers in the tropical region, mostly smallholders, and ca. 100 million people in the entire worldwide chain of value. Several pioneer works from our team have highlighted a greater heat resiliency of the coffee plant (at leaf level) than usually assumed, and that eCO2 (although associated to global warming) can further strength such resilience, and help to preserve bean quality. However, coffee yield is largely dependent on flower development, which needs, being known temperatures above 35°C increases the frequency of abnormal flowers (starlets) and fruit abortion. The reproductive development is largely regulated in leaves, with the perception of environmental signals and activation of transcription associated with the flower, that is, which regulate phase transition and flower development. Still, there is a total absence of knowledge about how the molecular pathways associated with coffee flower development and fertility are affected by heat, with the production of abnormal flowers, and about the interaction eCO2. In this context, the present proposal aims at to explore the heat and/or eCO2 impacts, at genetic and epigenetic levels, in the pathways that regulate the flowering of perennial plants, using the coffee tree as a model, since it presents abnormal flower associated with heat. Firstly, to establish a relationship between flower development and temperature, will be quantified the number of abnormal flowers in producing regions with contrasting annual average temperatures, and characterized the morphological and fertility changes in abnormal flowers in field conditions. It will be collected abnormal flowers in different developmental stages and compared with normal flowers as regards the transcription profiles (RNAseq) to identify a number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs), the proteomic profile, and the global methylation levels and specific in key DEGs for flower development (to relate changes in transcription with potential epigenetic changes). To show the impacts of warming and/or eCO2, it will be established experiments under environmental controlled conditions with plants of C. arabica cv. Icatu (widely cropped in Brazil). These will be grown under two air [CO2] (ambient: 410 ppm; elevated: 700 ppm), at 25 ºC (control). Afterwards, plants will be gradually submitted to supra-optimal temperatures up to 42ºC, with flower material collected at key temperatures (25ºC, 37ºC, 42ºC), and analyzed as described above (and gene expression through qPCR of DEGs identified through RNAseq), and volatile composition. In this way, we aim to decipher, for the first time, the molecular mechanisms that constrain the development of coffee flowers above temperature thresholds, and to evaluate its potential interaction with eCO2, constituting a cutting-edge breakthrough and contributing for the knowledge of how perennial crops might endure future climatic conditions, in order to promote their sustainability. The proposal will be developed by an international team with large experience in the plant and the techniques to be applied, and its interest was also recognized by the national coffee industry (see supporting letter from NovaDelta).

Coffee species has been categorized as a highly sensitive to climatic changes, based almost solely on climatic model studies that predicted dramatic effects on the coffee crop, including extensive reductions of suitable areas,yields, and natural coffee biodiversity, increasing agricultural, social and economic vulnerabilities. However, since no biological data was available, such climate modelling estimates showed some bias, since were frequently restricted to predictions of rising temperatures, neglecting plant resilience to stress, and the role of high [CO2]. In fact, the first worldwide reports of the real coffee plant response to warming in interaction with [CO2] were only recently presented by our team. It was clearly shown that coffee plants can cope with temperatures higher than usually assumed, and that high air [CO2] (a major driver of warming) mitigate the negative heat impacts, and is a crucial factor to coffee warming acclimation at physiological/biochemical level, from photosynthesis to mineral balance. This highlighted that global warming impacts on coffee sustainability would be lower than previously assumed. Temperature and water availability are the most shaping factors to coffee crop, existing a clear need to deepen our knowledge on the molecular basis of this plant response to warming and drought (implemented by the Brazilian team, see annexed program) in interaction with [CO2]. Systems biology, globally called as "Omics", led to significant advances on the global knowledge of plant biology (development and functioning), genomics-assisted breeding towards the production of crops tolerant to extreme conditions, among them high temperature, although its use in perennial plants is still restricted to a small group of trees, namely eucalyptus, poplar, abies and pine. Therefore, to unveil the molecular mechanisms involved in the improved heat response of coffee plant, and contributing to this crop sustainability under ongoing climate changes, a systems biology approach emerge as the obvious choice. The studies in Portugal will consider 2 cropped genotypes of C. arabica and C. canephora grown under 2 air [CO2] (380/700 ppm), which will be gradually submitted to supra-optimal temperatures from control (25 ºC) up to 42 ºC. Leaf material collected at several temperatures will be submitted to a complementary transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and lipidomic analysis, coupled with bioinformatics in order to integrates computational and statistical information. This innovative proposal for coffee integrate a large data set, constituting a significant knowledge breakthrough in the coffee plant response to global warming (Portugiese team) and to drought (Brazilian team). It integrates an international and multidisciplinary team with a large experience on coffee research, strengthening international collaborations and promoting results diffusion, together with advanced training and the collaboration with coffee industry (NovaDELTA).

The overall aim of this proposal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the effects of shrub encroachment on carbon and water fluxes and resilience of water-limited Mediterranean cork oak ecosystems, as a model system.

This project focuses on the use of cork and its products as a base material for facade cladding. Its objectives are (1) to understand how environmental factors (e.g. UV exposure, rain and water condensation, temperature fluctuations, insects) alter cork products. The underlying logic lies in the fact that cork products are a promising resource for use in buildings in the 21st century, due to their sustainability and characteristics, they could play a very important role in reducing the environmental impact of the construction industry. (2) The use of cork and cork products as an element in construction and design in architecture in general and in particular in the architecture of architect Álvaro Siza. The project is coordinated by the CEF and CEABN team of researchers. The other partner is SerQ - Forest Innovation and Skills Center - Sertã.

Plant-plant interactions strongly influence plant community dynamics and ecosystem structure. This is particularly true in the cork oak ecosystem, a complex system that almost always includes one or more vegetation layers – natural or cultivated – below the trees. The data will be gathered in plot-sets specifically established for this project. This will be accomplished by selecting stands, preferably within which different neighborhood environments will be artificially created (the treatments): with and without shrubs, with and without “pastures”, with and without fertilization, or other management operations with impact on the individuals interactions. The idea behind the project is not only to measure the effect of local competition on growth but also to contribute for the explanation for the underlying mechanisms. A operational result will be the inclusion of the interaction between the cork oak trees and the surrounding vegetation in the existing model for simulation of cork oak stands – SUBER model, which will have important practical consequences. The need for this improvement was identified by forest managers at dissemination workshops, held in the last years.

The mixture of cork oak and stone pine has expansion potential in some regions of the country. Compared to other Mediterranean countries, it is in Portugal that both species find optimal conditions to grow and thrive. The country has not only the most productive regions for cork and pine cones in the world, but also centuries of accumulated knowledge about the best techniques for installing plants, managing stands and harvesting the products. Both species produce non-woody forest products that are highly valued in national and international markets. Demand is greater than supply and the forest owner is interested in this mixture because of the possibility of combining these two incomes. This species composition already exists spontaneously in Portugal, suggesting that, with proper management, it can be even more profitable. How and where this mixture can thrive are questions this project aims to answer.