Introduction to “Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture and Food Security in Egypt”
7
to overcome challenges related to innovation, and scientific research and already
making big progress with regards to assessment of the climate change impact on
Egyptian agriculture as well as suggesting scientific climate change adaptation measures Because of the cost of research, funding for scientific research and development
needs long-term commitments which are not affected by rapid policy changes. There
is also a need for more international cooperation.
3.2 Land and Water Resources
This theme is covered into five chapters. The chapter titled “Impact of Climate
Change on Plant-Associated Fungi” discusses an important aspect related to climate
change which is its impact plant-associated fungi. The chapter features the relationship between climate change and the diversity of soil fungi such as decomposers,
mutalists, and pathogens. Since climate change directly affects abiotic stressors such
as temperature, humidity, drought, salinity and nutrient limitations, the relationship
between plants and mycorrhizal fungi is discussed and linked to the increase in agricultural productivity. The increase in temperature and carbon dioxide directly affects
the activity of saprophytic and pathogenic fungi, consequently leading to change the
soil fungal profile. The effect includes fungal enzymatic activity as well as secondary
metabolites and eventually have an overall effect on soil mycobiomes. In order to
reach precision farming, the state of the art technologies has to be used. Modern tools
such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
and Wireless Sensory Networks (WSN) offer precise monitoring for key biomarkers.
WSN is gaining attention because it can be coupled with corrective action providing
a fair opportunity to mitigate harsh climatic changes.
While the chapter titled “Impacts of Climate Change on Microbial Activity in
Agricultural Egyptian Soils” is devoted how climate change affects the microbial
processes and activity of enzymes in Egyptian soils and how they are used as an
indicator of their quality and are likely to respond rapidly to climate change. Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria, actinobacteria,
fungi, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that play a vital role in nutrient cyclings,
the breakdown of soil organic matter, and increasing soil fertility. However, we still
have no general framework or know remarkably little about their response to climate change. Moreover, the soil is a complex habitat for microbial growth, and
the structure and function of microorganisms are tremendously complex in the soil.
These complexations lead the difficult to predict the effects of climate change on
the activity of Egyptian soil microorganisms. In this chapter, we review the currently available researches regarding the impact of climate change on soil microbial
activities such as microbial populations, microbial biomass, enzymes activity, soil
beneficial microorganisms in Egyptian soils.
Climate change is possible to change the composition, function, and abundance
of soil microorganisms, as well as plant-microbe interactions that together affect
the quality of soils. Microorganisms inhabiting Egyptian soils have been exposed to
7
to overcome challenges related to innovation, and scientific research and already
making big progress with regards to assessment of the climate change impact on
Egyptian agriculture as well as suggesting scientific climate change adaptation measures Because of the cost of research, funding for scientific research and development
needs long-term commitments which are not affected by rapid policy changes. There
is also a need for more international cooperation.
3.2 Land and Water Resources
This theme is covered into five chapters. The chapter titled “Impact of Climate
Change on Plant-Associated Fungi” discusses an important aspect related to climate
change which is its impact plant-associated fungi. The chapter features the relationship between climate change and the diversity of soil fungi such as decomposers,
mutalists, and pathogens. Since climate change directly affects abiotic stressors such
as temperature, humidity, drought, salinity and nutrient limitations, the relationship
between plants and mycorrhizal fungi is discussed and linked to the increase in agricultural productivity. The increase in temperature and carbon dioxide directly affects
the activity of saprophytic and pathogenic fungi, consequently leading to change the
soil fungal profile. The effect includes fungal enzymatic activity as well as secondary
metabolites and eventually have an overall effect on soil mycobiomes. In order to
reach precision farming, the state of the art technologies has to be used. Modern tools
such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
and Wireless Sensory Networks (WSN) offer precise monitoring for key biomarkers.
WSN is gaining attention because it can be coupled with corrective action providing
a fair opportunity to mitigate harsh climatic changes.
While the chapter titled “Impacts of Climate Change on Microbial Activity in
Agricultural Egyptian Soils” is devoted how climate change affects the microbial
processes and activity of enzymes in Egyptian soils and how they are used as an
indicator of their quality and are likely to respond rapidly to climate change. Egyptian soils have a great diversity of microorganisms such as bacteria, actinobacteria,
fungi, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that play a vital role in nutrient cyclings,
the breakdown of soil organic matter, and increasing soil fertility. However, we still
have no general framework or know remarkably little about their response to climate change. Moreover, the soil is a complex habitat for microbial growth, and
the structure and function of microorganisms are tremendously complex in the soil.
These complexations lead the difficult to predict the effects of climate change on
the activity of Egyptian soil microorganisms. In this chapter, we review the currently available researches regarding the impact of climate change on soil microbial
activities such as microbial populations, microbial biomass, enzymes activity, soil
beneficial microorganisms in Egyptian soils.
Climate change is possible to change the composition, function, and abundance
of soil microorganisms, as well as plant-microbe interactions that together affect
the quality of soils. Microorganisms inhabiting Egyptian soils have been exposed to