Effects of climate change and cultivar on summer maize phenology

Abstract

<span>To identify countermeasures to the effects of climate warming on crop production, we must<br /><span>understand the changes in crop phenology and the relationships between phenology and climate<br /><span>change and cultivar. We used summer maize phenological and climate data in the North China<br /><span>Plain, collected from 1981 to 2010. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal trends in<br /><span>phenological data and lengths of different growing phases, mean temperatures and rainfall.<br /><span>The analyses showed that sowing, jointing and anthesis occurred relatively early at 13 (48.1%),<br /><span>11 (40.7%) and 13 (48.1%) stations, respectively. Maturity dates were delayed significantly at<br /><span>10 (37.0%) stations. The lengths of the vegetative growing phases, vegetative and reproductive<br /><span>growing phase at most stations showed a negative trend. The lengths of the reproductive<br /><span>growing phase increased at 25 (92.6%) stations, respectively. Furthermore, at most stations, the<br /><span>correlations between T<br /><span>means <span>and lengths of the various growing phases were negative, whereas<br /><span>the correlations between rainfall and lengths of various growing phases were positive.<br /><span>Furthermore, a field experiment, including four summer maize cultivars which were introduced<br /><span>during the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s and 2000s, was carried out during 2012 to 2014. The analyses<br /><span>showed that the durations of the various growing phases increased significantly. These results<br /><span>indicated that climate warming accelerates summer maize growth and shortens the growing<br /><span>periods of maize growth, whereas cultivars shift might prolong the maize growing season.<br /><span>Therefore, the maize cultivars with more longer whole growing period should be adopt in the<br /><span>North China Plain under the trend of global warming and the adaptation strategy of maize<br /><span>production under climate change should include crop phenology in response to climate change.<br /><span>The findings presented here could guide the development of options to adapt maize production<br /><span>to climate change in the North China Plain and other areas with similar ecologies.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></span></span>