Yield suffers as well

Rice loses quality due to climate change

According to a study, global warming is leading to lower yields and reduced quality in rice plants. In the warmest climate scenario, yields could fall by up to 35 percent and quality by as much as 85 percent.

The study by the Organization for Agriculture and Food Research in Tsukuba, Japan, chose the climate conditions of the 1990s as a comparison period. Five Japanese rice varieties were examined.

Life cycle accelerated, quality deteriorated
The study, which was published in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" ("PNAS"), found that although the predicted strong global warming significantly accelerates the life cycle of rice plants, it has a negative impact on grain yield and quality. Compared to the high temperature alone, an additional high CO₂ concentration further worsened production.

Growth chamber simulates environmental fluctuations
To test how rice plants - and therefore the rice harvest - are affected by climate change, the researchers used an artificial, customized growth chamber. In it, natural environmental fluctuations were simulated using high-performance LED lamps, among other things. The growth chamber was fed with meteorological data from several years at various locations. The future warming scenarios were carried out for a region with a temperate climate such as Tsukuba in Japan.

The growth chamber could help to test the climate impact on other rice plants and develop varieties that are better able to cope with future environmental conditions, the researchers write. It could help to reduce methane production in rice cultivation.