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Nighttime Warming Will Increase Winter Wheat Yield Through Improving Plant Development and Grain Growth in North China

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Abstract

A better understanding of the actual impacts of nighttime warming on winter wheat growth will assist in breeding new varieties and agronomic innovation for food security under future climates. A 3-year experiment was conducted over an entire growth period of winter wheat using a passive warming facility in North China. An increase of 1.1 °C in mean nighttime temperature promoted wheat development, causing a 6-day reduction of the preanthesis period but a 5-day extension of the postanthesis period. This warming significantly stimulated the rate of leaf respiration at nighttime, resulting in higher carbohydrate depletion compared to that of the unwarmed control. However, stimulation of nighttime respiration and carbohydrate depletion could be compensated for by warming-led promotion of daytime photosynthesis and carbohydrate assimilation. Meanwhile, the flag leaf area per plant and the total green leaves area were significantly higher in the warmed plots than in the unwarmed plots. Besides extending the duration of grain filling, nighttime warming significantly promoted the filling rates of the superior and inferior grains, resulting in a significant increase in the 1,000-grain weight by 6.3 %. Consequently, this moderate increase in nighttime air temperature significantly increased wheat aboveground biomass and grain yield by 12.3 and 12.0 % (p < 0.05), respectively. A moderate warming at nighttime can improve the sink-source balance of winter wheat for higher yield. Our results suggest that climatic warming may benefit winter wheat production through improvement of plant development and grain growth in North China.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2010CB951501), the National Key Technology Support Program of China (2011BAD16B14), and the Chinese Nature Science Foundation of (30771278, 31201179).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Applied Ecology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

    Jin Chen, Yunlu Tian, Xin Zhang & Weijian Zhang

  2. Institute of Crop Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Crop Physiology & Ecology, Ministry of Agriculture, No. 12 Zhongguancun South Street, Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xin Zhang, Chengyan Zheng, Zhenwei Song, Aixin Deng & Weijian Zhang

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  1. Jin Chen
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  2. Yunlu Tian
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  3. Xin Zhang
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  7. Weijian Zhang
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Correspondence to Weijian Zhang.

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Chen, J., Tian, Y., Zhang, X. et al. Nighttime Warming Will Increase Winter Wheat Yield Through Improving Plant Development and Grain Growth in North China. J Plant Growth Regul 33, 397–407 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-013-9390-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-013-9390-0

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