Open Field Simulating Nocturnal Warming on Summer Maize Performance in the North China Plain

Climate changes show asymmetrical warming, and warming is typically greater at night than during the day. To understand how nocturnal warming (NW) affects the performance of maize(Zea mays L.), an open-field experiment with a free air temperature increase (FATI) facility was conducted for three seasons during 2014 to 2016 at Luancheng eco-agro-experimental station on the North China Plain (NCP). Three nocturnal warming scenarios were set up: the entire growing period (T1, from V4 to maturity), only the vegetative stages (T2, from V4 to a week presilking) and the reproductive stages (T3, from a week presilking to R6).