Research progress on the impact of climate change on wheat in China

Abstract

Climate change is seriously affecting the food crop ecosystem. Wheat is not only an important food crop for human beings, but also one of the food crops sensitive to climate change. Wheat is divided into winter wheat and spring wheat. China is dominated by winter wheat. This paper reviews the research progress on the effects of climate change on wheat in China from four aspects. The contents include: (1) the influence of planting boundary and planting area, (2) the influence of planting system and yield, (3) the influence of quality, and (4) the influence of agricultural input. Previous studies have shown that although climate change moves the planting boundary of wheat northward and expands the planting area as a whole, climate change affects the growth and development process of wheat, the change of suitable planting areas, and the aggravation of diseases and insect pests, which leads to the decrease of planting yield and quality. The adverse effects of climate change can be dealt with through adjustment of planting distribution, variety improvement, and technological improvement. In the future, climate change will further affect the ecology of wheat. It is still necessary to strengthen the research on the impact mechanism and countermeasures of climate change to ensure wheat’s sustainable development. This paper aims to provide a reference for the impact assessment of climate change on wheat and the sustainable development of grain.