Phytobiomes Contribute to Climate Processes that Regulate Temperature, Wind, Cloud Cover, and Precipitation

Abstract

In the management of plant health, climate and weather can be perceived as variables of the abiotic environment to which plants, and their associated biota, are passively subjected. However, research on Earth systems is now revealing how weather and climate can be markedly influenced by land use and by the types and extent of vegetation in particular. Plant-associated biota can alter the properties of vegetation that underlie the mechanisms by which it influences weather and climate. Therefore, it is important to consider the extent to which phytobiomes could impact climate and weather and the potential consequences for plant health and production and for processes that possibly exacerbate or modulate climate change. This commentary will illustrate how the exchange of mass and energy between the atmosphere and land cover modulates temperature, winds, cloud formation and precipitation at local, regional and even greater scales and the role of plants and their associated biota in these effects. Via these exchanges, phytobiomes contribute to the climatic and weather variations to which they are in turn subjected. This argues for an expanded perspective of phytobiomes that considers their role in Earth system processes and that integrates knowledge of land-atmosphere feedbacks into the management practices of crops and other vegetation. This knowledge will contribute to a vision of how management of the biophysical setting of crop cultivation could leverage environmental conditions locally and regionally. [Formula: see text] Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license .