Source: WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
UNDERSTANDING AND ENHANCING CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN PRUNUS CROPS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1032964
Grant No.
2024-51181-43235
Cumulative Award Amt.
$50,000.00
Proposal No.
2024-05450
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2024
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2026
Grant Year
2024
Program Code
[SCRI]- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Recipient Organization
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG
PULLMAN,WA 99164-0001
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Adverse weather events including fall frosts, warm winters, spring frosts, drought and extreme heat have caused significant economic losses to growers of Prunus crops, which as a group are the second most valuable specialty crop in the United States. These events are expected to increase as a result of climate change.In recent years considerable effort has been made towards understanding the physiology and genetics of dormancy and cold tolerance in Prunus, as well as in modeling freeze tolerance and improving mitigation strategies. Fragmented and sometimes overlapping advances in understanding climate resilience in Prunus have not resulted in satisfactory solutions, and economic losses continue. Therefore, to maintain economic sustainability of production of these important crops, a coordinated, transdisciplinary effort is needed that combines efforts in crop modeling, frost/extreme heat mitigation and protection strategies to protect existing orchards, and breeding, genetics and genomics research to develop more climate-resilient varieties. In addition, stakeholders need timely information via Extension on when to employ mitigation strategies, which strategies are appropriate for weather conditions, and which current and soon-to-be-released varieties are more resilient to adverse weather. The PD and Co-PD's have extensive expertise in their fields and have already made significant progress in enhancing climate resiliency in Prunus and other crops.By working together via the support of this planning project, we will be able to develop a strong transdisciplinary research and extension proposal to meaningfully address the challenges posed to Prunus crops by climate change, which is a key focus area for SCRI.
Animal Health Component
25%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
25%
Developmental
25%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2031119108060%
2031119102040%
Knowledge Area
203 - Plant Biological Efficiency and Abiotic Stresses Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
1119 - Deciduous tree fruits, general/other;

Field Of Science
1080 - Genetics; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
Develop a transdisciplinary, inter-institutional, and multi-state network of investigators to assess the state of climate-related challenges to Prunus crop production and research efforts dedicated to finding solutions.Identify research needs to fill gaps in scientific understanding and practical deployment of scientific knowledge.Determine achievable yet transformative goals toward the development of climate-resilient Prunus crops and production systems.Coordinate a specific research plan to submit a full SCRI grant proposal.
Project Methods
(N/A)

Progress 09/01/24 to 08/31/25

Outputs
Target Audience:For this planning grant, the target audience was researchers with expertise and interest in Prunus crops (breeding/genetics, physiology and molecular biology, and extension), and stakeholders of Prunus crops, including growers and commodity commission representatives. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We received a no-cost extension (through 31 August 2026) for the remaining project funds. There are sufficient funds remaining to allow for a followup meeting with researchers and stakeholders to develop a revised proposal. We intend to hold this meeting after the FY 2026 RFA is released. This will allow us to incorporate both the feedback from our first proposal as well as any new guidance or policies contained in the RFA.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. We successfully developed a network of investigators representing university researchers and USDA-ARS scientists across 7 states. Members of this network have expertise in a broad range of disciplines, including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, breeding, extension, genetics, horticulture, physiology, pomology, and remote sensing. 2. Over the course of a 2-day meeting (16-17 October 2024 at UC-Davis, CA), we identified important gaps in both scientific understanding and practical knowledge application as they relate to weather and climate-related threats to Prunus crop production. These included: Underlying physiology and molecular biology of climate-related traits such as transitions between dormancy states, bloom timing, and fruit/kernel quality traits affected by environmental stresses Understanding and dissecting the genetics of climate-resilience traits, including trait characterization (better/more complete phenotyping), identification of trait-associated genetic factors, DNA marker development, and gene editing Effective management strategies for avoiding or mitigating severe weather events/stressful climates Extension and outreach activities to deliver the knowledge of new management strategies, and a stable, accessible repository for new information Economics-based characterization of the impact of climate on thePrunuscrop industry, and understanding (and an improvement in) the social acceptance of gene-edited products 3, 4. The meeting referenced above included invited stakeholders as participants who helped determine needs and objectives. Based on the meeting and and followup communications between researchers, we developedand submitted a Stakeholder Relevance Statement as a pre-proposal for a large (Coordinated Agricultural Project or CAP) effort with five main objectives: Understand and dissect the physiology and molecular biology of Prunus tree phenology associated with climate-resilience traits Understand and dissect the genetics of climate-resilience traits Develop management strategies for climate resiliency in Prunus (tools for mitigation/avoidance) Extension and outreach to deliver management strategies to stakeholders Understand socioeconomic impacts of climate change and benefits of implementing management strategies in Prunus crops We were not invited to submit a full proposal for Fiscal Year 2025, but we received promising and useful feedback on our Stakeholder Relevance Statement.

Publications