The effect of climate changes on maize yield in a long-term fertilization experiment in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of China

To reveal the response of crop production to climate changes is of importance in sustainable agriculture. In the present study, data from a long-term field experiment carried out in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China were used to explore the impacts of climate changes on maize yields under different fertilization treatments. The results showed that maize yields were closely related to climate variability during tasseling and silking season. In all fertilization treatments, maize yields showed a significantly negative response to wind velocity during tasseling and silking period (P<0.01). The regression analysis also showed that changes of maize yields from year to year had significant positive relationships to the variation of sunshine duration (P<0.05), except for the OM, PK, NK and CK treatments. It was shown that at least 50.6-75.4% of the variation in year-to-year yield changes could be explained by average wind velocity and sunshine duration during tasseling and silking. These findings provide a direct evidence for the response of maize yield to climate change in the field study.