Infrared Warming Reduced Winter Wheat Yields and Some Physiological Parameters, Which Were Mitigated by Irrigation and Worsened by Delayed Sowing

Winter wheat has a central role in ensuring the food security and welfare of 1.3 billion people in China. Extensive previous studies have concluded that winter wheat yields would decrease with higher temperatures, owing to warming-induced soil drying or shortening of phenophase. Temperature in China is predicted to increase by 1–5°C by 2100, which may greatly impact plant production and cause other negative effects. We performed a manipulative field experiment, creating diverse growth regimes for wheat by infrared radiation (IR) warming day and night, including IR warming only (DW), IR warming + delayed sowing dates (DS), IR warming + increased irrigation (IW), and a control (CK). The results show that IR warming increased daily average wheat canopy and soil temperatures by 2.0°C and 2.3°C, respectively. DW was associated with an advanced maturity of 10 days and yield reduction of 8.2%. IR-warming effects on the photosynthetic apparatus of wheat varied with season as well as significant differences were found in the booting stage. DS represented a worsened situation, lowering yield per plant by 16.4%, with a significant decline in aboveground biomass and functional leaf area. Wheat under DS showed double-peak patterns of diurnal gas exchange during booting stages and, consequently, lower photosynthetic capacity with high transpiration for cooling. Significantly lower actual water use efficiency and intrinsic water use efficiency from jointing to anthesis stages were also found under DS. However, IW had no significant difference from CK, irrespective of yield and photosynthesis. Therefore, we concluded that delayed sowing date may not be a good choice for winter wheat, whereas a thoroughly-watered wheat agroecosystem should be promoted in the context of global warming.