This allows the researchers to look at how crops develop an ability to plan for extreme temperatures and drought, conditions that are only expected to increase in coming years due to climate change. Unlike other drought or climate change research that takes place in a highly controlled environment, this behavior has been observed in corn and soybean fields across Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. “We think the crop responds to the drought and adapts to it, so when it happens again the crops have already planned for the drought and the impact is lessened.” “What we have seen is if the crop survives an early drought, because of that experience they perform better when a drought occurs very close to harvest,” said Peng Fu, a postdoctoral researcher at Illinois. This ‘memory,’ or adaptation by the plant, could help reduce yield loss that year and help researchers prevent future yield loss. According to new research from the University of Illinois, crops that experience drought conditions or extreme temperatures during their early stages of growth and survive are better able to deal with those same conditions later in their growth cycle.
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