[ad_1]
Corn production in the US Midwest has been growing strongly for the past 70 years and new research shows that climate change has played an important role in the abundance of yields.
However, although Midwestern farmers have benefited from warmer and earlier sources, researchers are wondering if corn will continue to hold with the worsening climate change and increasing food demand.
Since 1940, corn production has increased five-fold and it was thought that this was due to advances in agricultural technology.
Researchers from Harvard University recently conducted a study to examine the role of climate change and local temperatures in Midwestern corn harvests.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The researchers found that earlier, warmer sources allowed farmers to plant early, giving their corn more opportunities to grow and thrive before harvest.
The results show that longer growing seasons and a natural cooling effect during the hottest days of summer stimulated maize production.
"Our research shows that improving crop yield depends in part on improving the climate," said Peter Huybers, professor and co-director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. "In this case, temperature changes have had a beneficial impact on agricultural production, but there is no guarantee that this benefit will continue as long as the climate continues to change. Understanding the detailed relationship between climate and crop yield is important for feeding a growing population on a changing planet. "
The researchers examined crop yield and temperature data from 1981 to 2017 and found that the increase in temperature over the years had displaced planting days three days earlier per decade.
Planting earlier was not the only factor improving maize crops, as researchers found that high temperatures created a cooling effect on large fields.
These twin effects, cooling and previous planting, have been the source of most of the crop growth since the 1980s.
"Increasingly productive, high planting crops can evaporate more water from the leaves and soil during hot days," said Nathaniel Mueller, co-author of the paper. "The widespread increase in evaporation rates is apparently helping to protect corn from extreme heat, cooling the surrounding area and increasing yields."
Maize farmers are using climate change to their advantage and planting earlier with the season has so far improved yields, but researchers are unsure if these trends will continue with future climate change.
–
By Kay Vandette, Earth.com Editor
Payed by Earth.com
[ad_2]
Source link
