Impacts of nighttime warming on rice growth, physiological properties and yield under water saving irrigation

Asymmetric diurnal warming is one of the main features of global climate warming. More attention has been paid to the impacts of nighttime warming on rice production. However, how rice responds to nighttime warming under water saving irrigation is still unclear. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of nighttime warming on rice growth, physiological properties, and grain yield under water saving irrigation. The results indicated that, nighttime warming significantly increased leaf area index (LAI) of rice at tillering stage but reduced it at jointing-maturity stage. Nighttime warming decreased grain yield by 17.2% and 12.98% under flooding (traditional irrigation) and wetting (water saving irrigation) conditions, respectively. The above findings indicate that wetting treatment is feasible in rice production instead of flooding treatment under future climate warming.