{"id":270218,"date":"2021-06-08T22:11:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T19:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/maines-blueberry-crop-faces-climate-change-peril\/"},"modified":"2021-06-08T22:11:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T19:11:52","slug":"maines-blueberry-crop-faces-climate-change-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/maines-blueberry-crop-faces-climate-change-peril\/","title":{"rendered":"#Maine\u2019s blueberry crop faces climate change peril"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Maine\u2019s blueberry crop faces climate change peril<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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PORTLAND, Maine \u2014 Maine\u2019s beloved wild blueberry fields are home to one of the most important fruit crops in New England, and scientists have found they are warming at a faster rate than the rest of the state.<\/p>\n

The warming of the blueberry fields could imperil the berries and the farmers who tend to them because the rising temperatures have brought loss of water, according to a group of scientists who are affiliated with the University of Maine.<\/p>\n

The scientists analyzed 40 years of data and found that the state experienced a 1.98 degrees Fahrenheit increase in average temperature, but the blueberry fields of Down East Maine experienced an increase of 2.34 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

That seemingly small difference is significant because rising temperatures could lead to water deficits that put the blueberries at risk, said Rafa Tasnim, a doctoral candidate in ecology and environmental science<\/a> at UMaine and the study\u2019s lead author. Lack of water could result in smaller crop sizes and blueberries that are less likely to survive to be harvested.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are expecting is the temperature is going to increase a lot and we will not get as much rainfall in the summertime especially,\u201d said Tasnim, who led a research team that published the\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0in the research journal Water earlier this year. \u201cWhat that will mean for the wild blueberry plants is they will be water stressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maine is home to the only commercial producers of wild blueberries in the U.S. The little berries are smaller and have a slightly different flavor than their cultivated cousins, and the vast majority of the crop is used to supply frozen fruit. Maine growers compete with those in Canada\u2019s eastern provinces, which also produce the fruit.<\/p>\n

\"Wild
The wild blueberry fields of Maine app<\/a>ear to be warming faster in 2021 than the state at large. <\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wild blueberry industry in Maine has struggled somewhat in recent years due to factors such as last year\u2019s drought and volatile markets. Farmers produced 47.4 million pounds of Maine wild blueberries last year, and that was the lowest number since 2004.<\/p>\n

The study authors found that wild blueberry growers might need to change the way they farm to prepare for future climate change. That could include changes to strategies such as irrigation and fertilizer use.<\/p>\n

The industry is up to that challenge, said Eric Venturini, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are actively engaged in finding out how climate change is impacting our industry and finding solutions to it,\u201d he said. \u201cClimate change definitely poses challenge to wild blueberry farms in Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The berries are widely used in processed food products. In recent years, Maine and its growers have worked to brand the berries as a health food product for the age of so-called superfoods. The blueberries are especially popular in smoothies.<\/p>\n

The blueberries are also the subject of annual agricultural festivals, and they\u2019re the key ingredient of blueberry pie, the official state dessert. Maine\u2019s official berry is, somewhat unsurprisingly, the blueberry.<\/p>\n

The scientists\u2019 findings dovetail with other research about the blueberry fields that has shown climate change to be a looming problem, said David Yarborough, emeritus professor of horticulture with the University of Maine, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with increasing temperatures, that will probably be the trend into the future,\u201d Yarborough said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re going to do about it is a good question.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Maine\u2019s blueberry crop faces climate change peril” PORTLAND, Maine \u2014 Maine\u2019s beloved wild blueberry fields are home to one of the most important fruit crops in New England, and scientists have found they are warming at a faster rate than the rest of the state. The warming of the blueberry fields could imperil the berries…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":270219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/maine-blueberries-2-1.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[108651,43485,9751,9724],"class_list":["post-270218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-8-21","tag-climate-change","tag-maine","tag-study-says"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}