AgWeb: Florida Researchers Design Corn to Handle Heat Stress

Temperatures across the Southeast have been rising since the 1960s, and nighttime low temperatures have been rising almost twice as fast as daytime high temperatures. According to an article in AgWeb, “Corn thrives in hot, humid summers, but it needs cool nights to fill kernels. Climate change is causing nighttime temperatures across the corn belt to rise, robbing corn of its full yield potential.  Researchers at the University of Florida have engineered a plant that can handle the stress of that nighttime heat and produce dramatically increased yields.” The ability to create new hybrids that can handle the warmer temperatures is one way that farmers will be able to adapt to the new, warmer climate. You can read more here.