Effect of warming temperatures on US wheat yields
Abstract
This study provides insights for wheat breeding efforts, public policy, and agricultural decision making related to climate change. Our findings provide opportunities for the international wheat breeding community to intensify research efforts to increase resistance to heat stress during focused developmental stages. These efforts could result in net positive warming effects since reduced exposure to freeze was found to be a yield-enhancing benefit of warming. Our results indicate that advancements in heat resistance could come at the expense of higher average yields, and that there is currently limited scope for producer adaptation through alternative variety selection. Our results also suggest that irrigation could help mitigate the effects of warming, which has implications for policies focused on the conservation of increasingly scarce water resources.
- Publication:
-
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- June 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1415181112
- Bibcode:
- 2015PNAS..112.6931T