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Rice is one of the major food crops, particularly in Asia. However, it is vulnerable to high temperature and has high yield fluctuations. Monitoring crop growth and physiological responses to high temperatures can help us better understand the agricultural impacts of global warming. The aim of this study is to monitor growth, development, and physiological responses to high temperature conditions on paddy rice and to assess their combined effects on yield. In this study, changes to growth, maturity, and senescence in paddy rice throughout the growing season were identified under elevated air temperature conditions created by a temperature gradient field chamber (TGFC). That facility provides a gradient from the ambient air temperature (AT) to 3 °C above AT (AT + 3 °C). To represent crop physiology and productivity, we measured the plant height, chlorophyll, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and maximum photosynthetic rate (Amax) to assess growth and physiological processes, and heat stress effects on four yield measurements were assessed using the heating degree day index. Rice height increased more rapidly in the AT + 3 °C treatment from the early growth stage to heading, while SPAD and NDVI decreased more rapidly at AT after heading. The Amax of AT and AT + 3 °C was not significantly different in the tillering stage. However, it was higher at AT in the booting stage but higher at AT + 3 °C in the grain filling stage. These results indicate that paddy rice was not affected by heat stress at the tillering stage, but a cumulative effect emerged by the booting stage. Further, photosynthetic capacity was maintained much later into the grain filling stage at AT + 3 °C. These results will be useful for understanding the growth and physiological responses of paddy rice to global warming.

The soil CO2 emissions from rice paddy fields have a significant influence on net CO2 fluxes throughout the year. Unlike other agroecosystems, rice paddy fields are flooded for most of the growing season. Over the course of this study, soil CO2 emissions in rice paddy fields were observed under fallow, flooded, and drainage conditions using a closed-system portable chamber. It was found that the dried and bare soil in fallow paddy systems emit a significant amount of CO2. On the other hand, the CO2 released from the soil during flooding periods was suppressed by the water layer. In drainage conditions, the exponential curve of the relationship between soil CO2 emissions and soil temperature was particularly evident. These results suggest that soil CO2 emissions during fallow and drainage periods can exceed the level of CO2 emissions that is suppressed under flooded conditions. However, immediately after draining or the occurrence of a rainfall event, the suppression of soil CO2 emission by residual paddy water will provide valuable insights in the interpretation of agricultural carbon cycle models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation indices based on selected wavelength reflectance measurements are used to represent crop growth and physiological conditions. However, it has been determined that the anisotropic properties of the crop canopy surface can govern both the spectral reflectance and vegetation indices. In this study, in order to investigate how crop surface reflectance and vegetation indices varied according to the direction of the light source and sensor viewing, a hyper-spectrometer of visible to nearinfrared wavelengths mounted on a field goniometer was used at vegetative and reproductive growth stages in rice paddy. It was found that most of the wavelength reflectance measurements produced by the sparse vegetation cover fraction were not sensitive to solar-illumination and sensor-viewing angles. In addition, the reflectance of visible wavelengths was found to be less sensitive to the solar and sensor angles than the red-edge and near-infrared wavelengths. The lowest normalized difference vegetation index value in a day occurred at the nadir sensor-viewing angle before rice heading, but after heading, when ripened grains began to bow, the lowest value was recorded at the sensor zenith angle of 25°. Enhanced vegetation index measurements were found to be more sensitive to the direction of sensor viewing and less affected by sun glint than normalized difference vegetation index measurements. Additional field observation measurements should increase our level of understanding of how vegetation indices change on anisotropic crop surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]