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Chinese Journal of Applied Ecology ›› 2012, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (09): 2483-2488.

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Responses of spring corn growth and yield in a cold area of China to field warming at nighttime during preanthesis stage.

QIAN Chun-rong1,2, YU Yang2, ZHAO Yang2, GONG Xiu-jie2, JIANG Yu-bo2, WANG Jun-he2, YANG Zhong-liang3, ZHANG Weijian1,4   

  1. (1Institute of Applied Ecology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China; 2Institute of Farming and Cultivation, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150086, China; 3Rice Institute of Wuchang, Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuchang 150229, Heilongjiang, China; 4Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology and Ecology, Beijing 100081, China)
  • Online:2012-09-18 Published:2012-09-18

Abstract: By using the facility for increasing free air temperature, a field experiment was conducted in a cold area of Northeast China to study the responses of the growth and yield of rain-fed spring corn to the field warming at nighttime during pre-anthesis stage. Under the field warming at nighttime, the nighttime temperature in 0-10 cm soil layer increased by 1.7 ℃, and the soil moisture content had a slight decrease. Nighttime warming advanced the spring corn phenophases obviously, shorted the pre-anthesis phase by 1 day, and prolonged the post-anthesis phase by 1 day. Nighttime warming also promoted the corn seedlings growth and the root length. Comparing with those in un-warming treatment,  green leaf area and threeear-leave area in nighttime warming treatment increased by 13.5% and 14.6%, and the aboveground biomass, grain yield, and 100-grain mass increased significantly by 8.2%, 9.3%, and 7.1%, respectively. It was suggested that the climate warming (especially the nighttime warming) in Northeast China could improve spring corn growth, and directly affect the corn yield.