Coffee Responses to Drought, Warming and High [CO₂] in a Context of Future Climate Change Scenarios

Climate variability strongly determines agricultural productivity, further causing important economic and social impacts. In a context of global climate changes, the continuous enhancement of agricultural production in the coming years is a major challenge for plant science research. Coffee, one of the most important agricultural commodities worldwide, is grown in more than 80 countries in the tropical region. Several estimates point to a strong reduction on both coffee yields and suitable areas in a near future, mostly related to predicted rising temperature, but also due to changes in intra- and inter-annual rainfall amounts and distributions. Nonetheless, recent findings from our team has shown that the coffee plant is more resilient that usually accepted, and that the negative impacts of rising temperature, at physiological and biochemical levels, were strongly mitigated by enhanced air [CO₂], which is considered one of the promoting agents of temperature rise. Also, the identification of ecophysiological and molecular traits that can promote plant acclimation to warming, in particular those related to the C-assimilation pathway, would foster the selection of more adapted/tolerant genotypes. In this context, this work aims at envisage leaf physiological responses in Coffea spp. subjected to supra-optimal temperatures, increased [CO₂], and water shortage conditions, contributing to this crop sustainability.