Untangling irrigation effects on maize water and heat stress alleviation using satellite data

Abstract. Irrigation has important implications for sustaining global food production, enabling crop water demand to be met even under dry conditions. Added water also cools crop plants through transpiration; irrigation might thus play an important role in a warmer climate by simultaneously moderating water and high temperature stresses. Here we use satellite-derived evapotranspiration estimates, land surface temperature (LST) measurements, and crop phenological stage information from Nebraska maize to quantify how irrigation relieves both water and temperature stresses. Our study shows that, unlike air temperature metrics, satellite-derived LST detects significant irrigation-induced cooling effect, especially during the grain filling period (GFP) of crop growth. This cooling is likely to extend the maize growing season, especially for GFP, likely due to the stronger temperature sensitivity of phenological development during this stage. The analysis also suggests that irrigation not only reduces water and temperature stress but also weakens the response of yield to these stresses. Specifically, temperature stress is significantly weakened for reproductive processes in irrigated crops. The attribution analysis further suggests that water and high temperature stress alleviation contributes to 65 % and 35 % of yield benefit, respectively. Our study underlines the relative importance of high temperature stress alleviation in yield improvement and the necessity of simulating crop surface temperature to better quantify heat stress effects in crop yield models. Finally, untangling irrigation effects on both heat and water stress mitigation has important implications for designing agricultural adaptation strategies under climate change.