UWA researcher Dr Sheng Chen develops heat-tolerant canola lines to withstand impacts of climate change

There’s high hopes for the future one of the State’s most valuable crops after a UWA researcher developed heat-tolerant canola lines designed to withstand the impacts of climate change. The research is led by UWA Institute of Agriculture Senior Research Fellow Dr Sheng Chen, who discovered that temperatures greater than 30 degrees in September — the canola flowering season — could “significantly reduce” the canola seed yield and quality. Earlier this year, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development reported WA had produced more than 2.2 million tonnes of canola in 2022, generating $1.2 billion for the State’s economy. Dr Chen has led the project since 2019 after the Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation announced funding for the five-year study. The heat-tolerant canola lines are grown in a purpose-specific heat screening facility at UWA’s Shenton Park Field Station. The canola lines are controlled under various temperatures and their yields are compared. The lines are then sent to Wagga Wagga in NSW, where they are monitored in field conditions. According to UWA, the project is unique as it isolates the impact of stress from other environmental factors such as drought and disease. “In the last four years we’ve screened more than 300 canola lines, with about 10 per cent showing good results in terms of heat resilience,” Dr Chen said. “We will be able to deliver breeders useful information and seeds of heat-tolerant potential parental genotypes to use for their specific environment and planting schedules. “Commercial canola cultivars can currently lose up to 25 to 50 per cent of their seed yield when impacted by the heatwaves, but the lines we will recommend may lose only 5 to 10 per cent or none at all. “We should therefore see better crops and yield stability in the coming years.” Earlier this year the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry forecast Australian canola production would fall by 38 per cent due to “expected below-average spring rainfall and lower crop yields”. El Nino is cited as the cause of the dry weather, leading to lower yields in regions with little soil moisture. “As heat waves increase in frequency, intensity and duration in Australia, we will have to produce cultivars with higher tolerance and that will need to happen through pyramiding multiple heat-tolerant genes,” Dr Chen said. “We are in competition with climate change. “This is a race and we will try our best to beat it.”