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Title

Trends in planting date and growing season for crops

Authors

Beth Drewniak Argonne National Laboratory

Abstract

The seasonal cycle of crops is strongly influenced by climate. For example, planting date is determined by thresholds of temperature and precipitation, thus allowing the day of planting to change from year to year. Crop productivity and yield are affected by temperature and precipitation during the growing season. The length of the growing season is driven by temperature, since crops phenological development is determined by heat accumulation. Crops have optimum temperature thresholds that limit growth during periods of excessive heat or cold. Because the total number of heat units needed for maturity is semi-fixed for crops, warmer years result in shorter growing cycles, and therefore lower yields as less time is spent during grain development. Furthermore, lack of adequate moisture can have dire consequences on yield. Understanding how changes in climate lead to changes in the seasonal cycle of crops is critical for crop yield estimation. In this study, the new planting date calculator in ELM is tested with global crops to identify possible trends in planting date and the length of the growing season over the historical period. Furthermore, correlations between these, and other variables such as temperature and precipitation over the growing season, and yield are evaluated.

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