"We know from observations that high temperatures can harm crops, but now we have a much better understanding of the processes," says Bernhard Schauberger from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, lead author of the study.
Without efficient emission reductions, yield losses of 20 percent for wheat are possible by 2100 For every single day above 30°C, maize and soybean plants can lose about 5 percent of their harvest. The simulations have shown that the models capture how rather small heat increases beyond this threshold can result in abrupt and substantial yield losses.
Irrigation could be a means for adaptation -- yet only in regions where there's sufficient water "The losses got substantially reduced when we increased irrigation of fields in the simulation, so water stress resulting from temperature increase seems to be a bigger factor than the heat itself," says co-author Joshua Elliott from the University of Chicago.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170119084622.htm
Without efficient emission reductions, yield losses of 20 percent for wheat are possible by 2100 For every single day above 30°C, maize and soybean plants can lose about 5 percent of their harvest. The simulations have shown that the models capture how rather small heat increases beyond this threshold can result in abrupt and substantial yield losses.
Irrigation could be a means for adaptation -- yet only in regions where there's sufficient water "The losses got substantially reduced when we increased irrigation of fields in the simulation, so water stress resulting from temperature increase seems to be a bigger factor than the heat itself," says co-author Joshua Elliott from the University of Chicago.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170119084622.htm