Adapting to Climate Change: Exploring Physiological Disorders and Quality Defects in Fruits and Vegetables

Climate change has already caused irreversible effects and is projected to continue. The field of agriculture faces the challenge of increasing productivity to cater to the ever-growing population's food requirements while preserving the environment and sustainability. Heatwaves and extremely hot temperatures are expected to fluctuate across regions. Thus, predicting the exact implications of climate change on the quality of fruit and vegetables becomes a challenging endeavor, given the potential of physiological damages caused by high-temperature exposure, flood, and drought, among other potential climatic changes. Likewise, fruit ripening is already undergoing climate-related challenges resulting in diminished fruit quality, physiological disorders, and other quality defects such as poor color, low acidity levels, and nutrient and temperature-related disorders.

Therefore, this Research Topic will highlight the physiological disorders and quality defects that arise in fruits and vegetables under the climate change scenario and simulated conditions, thereby affecting their overall quality and storability. In addition, the relationship between fruit ripening anomalies or desynchronization leading to physiological disorders will also be considered. We further aim to examine the potential changes in primary and secondary metabolites, considering the connections at molecular, biochemical, metabolic, and physiological levels, along with productivity. Our primary objective is to gather knowledge and new information concerning the biological and physiological behavior of fruits and vegetables under climate change. Through this endeavor, we aspire to enhance our understanding and develop effective strategies and technologies to navigate the challenges posed by a fluctuating climate.

We welcome original research and review articles on the following sub-themes:
• Simulated climatic change conditions and their effect on the quality of fruits and vegetables
• Fruit and vegetable development under climate change stress conditions
• Physiological disorders and quality changes under abiotic stress related to climate change
• Effect of the climate change stress conditions on the postharvest product behavior
• Omics technologies as a tool to study the effect of climate change stress conditions
• Changes in primary and secondary metabolites, gene expression, proteins, and lipids under climate change stress conditions
• Comparative study of horticultural practices to alleviate physiological disorders or to improve commodity quality under climate change stress conditions

Studies should assess the mechanistic understanding of plant functioning or concentrate on physiological traits associated with enhancing crop yield.

Keywords: physiological disorders, fruits, vegetables, post-harvest life, climate change

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.