Here, we provide a commentary on “Changes in the yield effect of the preceding crop in the US Corn Belt under a warming climate” recently published in Global Change Biology. Crop rotational diversity has recently been gaining interest for its role in climate change adaptation; however, the focus has been on climatic conditions in the growing season . This study uses data from over a wide area and an important cropping system t...

Diversified crop rotations have been suggested to reduce grain yield losses from the adverse climatic conditions increasingly common under climate change. Nevertheless, the potential for climate change adaptation of different crop rotational diversity (CRD) remains undetermined. We quantified how climatic conditions affect small grain and maize yields under different CRDs in 32 long‐term (10–63 years) field experiments across...

Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects in...

Purpose Perennial crops have been suggested as a more sustainable alternative to the currently most common cropping systems. Compared with annual plants, perennial plants produce more biomass and have deeper roots, and are expected to lead to higher soil organic carbon (SOC). This hypothesis, however, has not been well tested for grain crops. Methods Using perennial intermediate wheatgrass (IWG, Thinopyrum intermedium ) and an...

In Northern Europe, poplars ( Populus ) can provide biomass for energy and material use, but most available clones were developed for lower latitudes and are unlikely to be well adapted to higher latitudes, even under warmer climates. We thus need to understand how clones respond to climatic conditions and photoperiod, and how these responses can be predicted. We answer these questions exploiting leaf phenological data of Popu...

Climate change is predicted to hamper crop production due to precipitation deficits and warmer temperatures inducing both water stress and increasing herbivory due to more abundant insect pests. Consequently, crop yields will be impacted simultaneously by abiotic and biotic stressors. Extensive yield losses due to such climate change stressors might, however, be mitigated by ecosystem services such as insect pollination. We ex...

Many recent studies on drought‐induced vegetation mortality have explored how plant functional traits, and classifications of such traits along axes of, for example, isohydry–anisohydry, might contribute to predicting drought survival and recovery. As these studies proliferate, the consistency and predictive value of such classifications need to be carefully examined. Here, we outline the basis for a systematic classification...