Since the industrial revolution there was an increase in the atmospheric greenhouse gases, such as the carbon dioxide (CO2), which may lead to an increase in global temperature by the end of the 21th century. The direct effect of the increase in the CO2 concentration on plants is the possibility of increasing plant growth rate and crop yield, once CO2 is the substrate for photosynthesis. If the increase in CO2 concentration will be accompanied by an increase in air temperature, there may not be an increase in plant growth and crop yield because of a shortening of the developmental cycle an increase in plant tissue respiration. However, the response to elevated CO2 and temperature varies depends upon the crop. Thus, the objective of this review is to assemble information about the ecophysiological response of rice crop, one of the tree major cereals produced and consumed by the world population, to climate change. Plants with the C3 metabolism, as rice, are more benefitted from the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration than plants with the C4 metabolism. High daytime and nighttime temperatures may drastically reduce the yield potential of rice crop due to shortening of the developmental cycle and spikelet sterility. Such a trend can be mitigated by selecting genotypes more resistant to conditions of high air temperature during flowering and by changing the sowing date.
Oryza sativa; global warming; ecophisiology; food production; stress
