Increasingly extreme weather conditions in the southern US state of Florida are threatening the future viability of grapefruit production.
Research carried out by biologists at the University of Central Florida studied more than 50 years of seasonal and regional changes in climate and how it affected the flowering times of 70 plant species throughout the state. “We have been having increased freezing events and also big swings in temperatures where one month it can be quite warm and the next quite cold,” said Dr Betsy Von Holle who led the study at UCF. “What we saw [in our research] is delayed reproduction in native and non-native plant species, i.e. flowering is much later than it was 50 years ago.”
The result for some crops could be displacement. Von Holle said: “Crops such as grapefruit and strawberries that depend on mild winters and springs are highly affected by these freezes. Therefore we will see cultivation of these type of products move further south if these trends continue.”
Van Holle’s work highlights the complexity of a changing climate in a gradually warming world and shows the need for more research on seasonal and regional changes in climate in subtropical areas such as Florida. These regions have not received as much scientific attention to date, as they are not warming as quickly as other climatic regions.
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