Night time temperatures impacting rice yields

Doherty Labs out of North Carolina State University offers some insights:

Research that addresses rice yield losses is important because rice is an essential crop for feeding hundreds of millions of people each year – and because a changing climate poses challenges for global food security.

“Warmer nights throw the rice plant’s internal clock out of whack,” says Colleen Doherty, an associate professor of biochemistry at North Carolina State University. And corresponding author of a paper on the work.

“Many people believe plants are not dynamic, but they are. Plants constantly regulate and adjust their biological processes. Plants gear up for photosynthesis just before dawn, winding that down in the late afternoon, and determine precisely how and where to burn their energy resources. Plants are busy, it’s just difficult to observe all the activity from the outside.”

Researchers are learning the clock responsible for regulating all of the activity changes when nights grow hotter relative to the days.

Warmer nights hurt rice production. 

“Research – Doherty Lab” (ncsu.edu)

“World food security increasingly at risk due to ‘unprecedented’ climate change impact, new UN report warns” | | UN News

“Hot nights confuse circadian clocks in rice, hurting crop yields” — ScienceDaily