By Professor Owen Atkin, Director, ANU Agrifood Innovation Institute

As we move into winter in Canberra, with leaves falling and ice on car windows, it is easy to forget what extreme heat feels like. Yet only months ago, farmers and regional communities across south-eastern Australia were working through heatwaves that pushed conditions to dangerous limits. When I spoke to Mark King, a dried fruit grower in Wentworth, New South Wales, a few months ago, he told me this can mean operating equipment in a shed where the temperature exceeds 55°C by early afternoon – conditions that are simply not safe to work in. To continue producing food in a hotter world, we need to equip farmers like Mark with the tools to safely grow, harvest and store crops.

Last summer’s extreme heat was not a one-off. New forecasts released this month indicate growing confidence that one of the strongest El Niño events on record will form later this year. Some models are predicting record heat that will have significant impacts on farmers and regional communities. Seasonal outlooks also indicate a high likelihood of temperatures significantly above median levels across parts of Australia over the coming months.

These projections highlight the urgency of understanding how extreme heat will shape food systems, ecosystems and communities. While much of the public discussion of heat has focused on cities and human health, the broader implications for agriculture, water security, biodiversity and supply chains are equally significant.

Addressing these challenges requires targeted research into how crops respond under extreme heat. In May, the Agrifood Innovation Institute (AFII) hosted researchers from ANU, the University of Sydney, the University of New England, the University of Western Australia, and Sonora Institute of Technology (Obergon, Mexico) to review progress on a GRDC-funded project investigating the physiological basis of heat tolerance in wheat. The project has used high-throughput robotic technologies to transform how plant performance under heat stress is measured. It has generated the largest known dataset on wheat photosynthesis and respiration responses to temperature, spanning 16 environments across Australia and more than 12,000 measurements of key physiological traits. The research aims to identify the genetic basis of metabolic heat tolerance traits — knowledge that will be crucial to maintaining wheat production as global temperatures rise.

Understanding crop responses is one piece of a larger puzzle, as extreme heat reshapes our environment. Extreme heat affects systems at every scale. At very high temperatures, the basic functioning of living systems begins to fail. Plant and animal cells are damaged, metabolic systems disrupted, and the impacts ripple through landscapes, water systems and food supply chains. Unlike floods or fires, extreme heat events can affect entire regions or continents simultaneously, placing enormous pressure on food production and regional resilience.

Last summer, Australia experienced temperatures above 50°C in some regions, and future events are likely to be more intense and longer-lasting. As a country already experiencing these conditions, Australia has both direct experience and world-leading scientific expertise to contribute to global solutions.

Next week, I will be in Córdoba, Spain, for a global symposium on extreme heat impacts. The symposium will examine what happens when temperatures push plants, crops, ecosystems and food systems beyond their tolerance limits, and what practical responses are needed to prepare for a hotter future.

The event will bring together expertise spanning molecular biology, crop science, ecology, food systems and climate adaptation to address one of the defining global challenges to managed and natural ecosystems. Discussions will focus on how growers may need to adapt in practice — from crop breeding and irrigation timing to the physical design of orchards and vineyards. Ecologists will consider ways to create more heat-resilient ecosystems.

Addressing these challenges will require collaboration across science, government, industry and communities. Preparing for a hotter future means rethinking how we design agricultural systems, manage landscapes and build resilience into food and water systems.

In Spain, a team of young researchers from the ANU, Phoenix Desert Botanic Gardens and University of British Columbia will be looking to form one such collaboration. They will explore whether it is possible to bring together researchers from every continent to track the heat impacts of the predicted El Nino as events unfold. While scientists have long pursued storms to understand their impacts, no coordinated effort has yet set out to chase heatwaves in this way. Using shared methodologies, such a collaboration could enable real-time quantification of how heatwaves affect the functioning of both managed and natural ecosystems worldwide.

The symposium aims to help build a more complete understanding of how heat affects life and how that knowledge can be translated into practical action. This includes exploring approaches such as smarter farm design, thermal refuges, landscape engineering, new crop species and emerging technologies that may support adaptation in the decades ahead.

Following the symposium, AFII will host a webinar on 18 June at 3:30pm to share key insights and outcomes from the discussions in Spain. We look forward to continuing this important conversation with our partners, researchers and broader community.