WheatDryFace Project:
The first Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) setting ever conducted in the Middle East (wheat varieties)
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels are expected to double by the end of the century. This increase has been suggested to be causing warming and extreme weather patterns, including intense heatwaves and droughts. Such changes pose significant threats to global food security, particularly for staple crops like wheat. To predict the impact of these changes on wheat, models representing plant response mechanisms are developed. However, a crucial step would require solid experimental observations at different scales for appropriate representation of the mechanisms in the models.
The aim of the WheatDryFACE Project is to understand the impact of combined drought holistically and the expected high atmospheric CO₂ levels on soil water and energy balances in wheat fields and their impacts on the crop, from the leaf to the canopy and whole field scale by using advanced monitoring techniques, including remote sensing tools that will aid to develop mathematical equations for crop models.
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We established the first-ever FACE system in a wheat field in Israel to test the future impacts of climate and higher atmospheric levels of CO2 on drought-resistant wheat varieties
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