Impact of Climate Change on Citrus Nutrition, Yield, and Fruit Quality

Climate change is increasingly reshaping citrus nutrition across production systems worldwide. Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, extreme climatic events, and elevated atmospheric CO₂ are altering citrus phenology, root activity, and water relations—changing nutrient availability in soils, nutrient uptake and use efficiency, and nutrient partitioning to fruits. These nutrition-driven shifts can reduce yield stability and compromise fruit quality attributes linked to mineral nutrition, including soluble solids/acidity balance, antioxidant profiles, peel integrity, postharvest performance, and shelf life. Climate-favored diseases (notably citrus greening/HLB) further intensify nutrient dysfunction by impairing phloem transport and aggravating nutrient disorders.

Despite citrus being one of the most studied perennial fruit crops, sustaining fruit nutritional quality and productivity under climate-driven nutrient mining, soil degradation, and water stress remains a central challenge. Evidence increasingly shows that climate variables can significantly modify soil–root nutrient dynamics—including nutrient transformations, mobility, and root acquisition strategies—through changes in rhizosphere processes (root exudation, pH shifts, enzyme activity, and nutrient solubilization) and through shifts in the structure and function of root-associated microbiomes. These microbiome-mediated processes can influence nutrient acquisition, nutrient stress signaling, and tolerance to heat, drought, salinity, and disease, with direct consequences for fruit nutrient density and market quality.

Conventional nutrient management and diagnostic frameworks often assume relatively stable climate–soil–plant relationships. Under greater climate variability, however, nutrient demand, uptake windows, and diagnostic thresholds may shift across systems (open-field orchards, irrigated groves, and protected cultivation), increasing uncertainty in fertilization decisions and risk of both deficiency and excess. There is therefore a need for climate-smart citrus nutrition strategies that integrate soil fertility and nutrient capital management, rhizosphere-driven nutrient mobilization, microbiome-assisted nutrient acquisition, and advanced nutrient diagnostics to sustain citrus yield and fruit quality.

This Research Topic provides a focused platform to advance understanding of how climate change reshapes citrus nutrition from soil to fruit, and to develop practical, science-based approaches for climate-resilient nutrient management in citrus production systems.

Key themes include (but are not limited to):

- Climate impacts on citrus nutrient uptake, nutrient use efficiency, and yield/quality outcomes
- Climate-driven phenology shifts and their links to nutrient demand timing and nutritional disorders
- Rhizosphere processes controlling nutrient availability (e.g., root exudates, pH, enzymes, nutrient solubilization) under heat/drought/salinity
- Root-associated microbiomes and nutrient acquisition (e.g., microbial mobilization of P, micronutrients; stress-response mediation)
- Soil nutrient capital, soil fertility dynamics, and implications for fruit nutritional quality under climate change
- Nutrient-linked disease interactions (e.g., HLB-related nutrient imbalances), improved nutrient diagnostics, and emerging tools for assessing citrus nutrient status under climate variability

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This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Climate change, nutrtional quality of fruits, sustainability, rhizosphere micorbiome, soil fertility, plant nutrition, nutrient diagnostics, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, clementine, lime, citrus hybrids, meyer lemon, key lime, rangpur lime, yuzu, sudachi, kabosu, calamondin, citroncirus, tangelo, tangor, minneola, ugli fruit, oroblanco, mandelo, limequat, lemonquat, orangequat, citrange, citrandarin, citrumelo, citrangequat, faustrime, finger lime x mandarin, hybrid citrus fruit, citrus crossbreeding, citrus hybridization, citrus breeding, citrus cultivar development, new citrus varieties, rare citrus, exotic citrus, specialty citrus, seedless citrus, easy-peel citrus, citrus identification, citrus variety identification, citrus hybrid chart, citrus family tree, citrus parentage, persian lime (tahiti lime), kumquat, blood orange, sweet orange, sour orange, pomelo, mandarin, satsuma, murcott (honey tangerine), temple orange, trifoliate orange, flying dragon rootstock, citrus grafting, scionwood

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.