Scientists: Truffles hit by global warming
Source: AFP |
November 28, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SCIENTISTS said yesterday they had proof that climate change was hitting the Perigord black truffle, a delight of gourmets around the world.
Trufflers have long suspected global warming is affecting tuber melanosporum - dubbed "the black diamond" on account of its color and extraordinary price - in its native habitat in southwestern France, Spain and Italy.
A century ago, French trufflers notched up a harvest that, according to legend, reached 1,000 tons in a year. In the 1960s, truffle yields were still 200-300 tons annually.
But in recent years, it has fallen to 25 tons, prompting retail prices to rocket to as high as 2,000 euros (US$2,500) a kilogram.
In a letter to the journal Nature Climate Change, Swiss scientists said they now had clear data that drier summers were to blame, as this affected the oak and hazelnut trees on which the prized fungi grows, a process known as symbiosis.
The team found harvests in France's Perigord and in Spain's Aragon region fell at roughly the same pace from 1970-2006, and this trend was in line with an overall decline in summer rainfall.
Harvests in northern Italy's Piedmont and Umbria also retreated, but not as much.
Trufflers have long suspected global warming is affecting tuber melanosporum - dubbed "the black diamond" on account of its color and extraordinary price - in its native habitat in southwestern France, Spain and Italy.
A century ago, French trufflers notched up a harvest that, according to legend, reached 1,000 tons in a year. In the 1960s, truffle yields were still 200-300 tons annually.
But in recent years, it has fallen to 25 tons, prompting retail prices to rocket to as high as 2,000 euros (US$2,500) a kilogram.
In a letter to the journal Nature Climate Change, Swiss scientists said they now had clear data that drier summers were to blame, as this affected the oak and hazelnut trees on which the prized fungi grows, a process known as symbiosis.
The team found harvests in France's Perigord and in Spain's Aragon region fell at roughly the same pace from 1970-2006, and this trend was in line with an overall decline in summer rainfall.
Harvests in northern Italy's Piedmont and Umbria also retreated, but not as much.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
