Effect of warming treatment on the cold resistance and yield characteristics of Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) varieties during winter season

Abstract

Global warming reduced glaciers in the Arctic, leading to the arctic oscillation and changes in the jet stream, and increasing the likelihood of cold waves. When the incidence of cold waves increases, it causes winter crop growth and reduced yield. There is a need to prevent cold stress with these risks or to recover cold-stressed crops. Therefore, by conducting warming treatment through greenhouses, the experiments were conducted on barley, which is a representative winter crop in Korea. As a result, the average temperature of ‘1st treatment’ was 12.96 °C, the average minimum temperature was 0.97 °C, and the average maximum temperature was 24.95 °C. In contrast, ‘control’ recorded an average temperature of 9.87 °C, the lowest of 0.04 °C, and the highest 19.70 °C. The control had a higher percent ripened grain than the early 1st treatment, but the total number of matured grains was higher than that of the 1st treatment. The thousand grain weight of the first treatment tended to be heavier than that of the control. The grain weight per spike of control tended to be heavier than the treatments, because the number of grains per spike of control was greater than the treatments. Based on the above results, it was confirmed that warming treatment in winter can preserve the growth and yield of cold-stressed barley. Thus, if there is a possibility of experiencing cold stress in winter, warming treatment will prevent the risk of cold stress.