Trends in Maize Grain Yields across Five Maturity Groups in a Long-Term Experiment with Changing Genotypes

Ivica Buhiniček,Jerko Gunjača,Zdravko Kozić,Domagoj Stepinac,Dražen Kaučić,Mirko Jukić,Domagoj Šimić,Hrvoje Šarčević

doi:10.3390/agriculture11090887

Ivica Buhiniček, Jerko Gunjača + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11090887

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Abstract

Combining experimental studies on grain yield variability with crop model simulations in maize could assist in choosing the optimum maturity group for a certain location, counteracting the effect of climate change. However, studies considering specificities in Southeast Europe are lacking. The objectives were to put various environmental covariates including stress degree days (SDD) into FAO maturity settings to determine the impact of climate change on maize growing in Southeast Europe and to compare trends for grain yields over twenty years of maize experimental and simulation data grouped in five FAO maturity groups (FAO 200–FAO 600). Pre-registration yield trials of maize planted in one location in Croatia grown from 1996 to 2015 were used to determine “potential yield”. Correlation coefficients between 12 climate covariates and grain yield (GY) across the maturity groups revealed the tightest negative associations between SDD and GY that were weakened by later-maturity groups. Similar trends in GY were obtained by both experimental and simulation data, highlighting FAO 600 as a nearly no yield-reducing FAO group over the two decades. Our results indicate that choosing early maize hybrids in Southeast Europe does not seem to be an optimum option in the future, since these hybrids are more sensitive to omnipresent heat stress than late hybrids.

Highlights

Planting date and hybrid relative maturity are two decisive factors which set the grain yield potential of maize in a certain environment [1]
The objectives were to put various environmental covariates including stress degree days (SDD) into FAO maturity settings to determine the impact of climate change on maize growing in Southeast Europe and to compare trends for grain yields over twenty years of maize experimental and simulation data grouped in five FAO maturity groups (FAO 200–FAO 600)
Our results indicate that choosing early maize hybrids in Southeast Europe does not seem to be an optimum option in the future, since these hybrids are more sensitive to omnipresent heat stress than late hybrids

Summary

Introduction

Planting date and hybrid relative maturity are two decisive factors which set the grain yield potential of maize in a certain environment [1]. Along with changing management practices, climate change has had an effect on maize cropping systems in Southeast Europe—the European Corn Belt (parts of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia)—allowing earlier planting and/or growing early-maturity hybrids These strategies of avoidance are commonly applied in maize where stress can be circumvented by earlier planting dates or planting earlier hybrids to avoid assumed adverse weather conditions, mostly during flowering. The global trends in temperature and precipitation indicate that extreme weather events may occur at any time throughout the growing season [1,5,8], including cold spring and late spring frost, sometimes making early planting dates not meaningful This is important for Southeast Europe where maize dent hybrids which are not chilling tolerant are mostly planted

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