Future agricultural systems will need to become more resilient as climate change impacts increase. One expected outcome of climate change is an increase in severe thunderstorms with high velocity straight line winds. In August 2020, a derecho, a cluster of thunderstorms generating high-speed prolonged-duration straight line winds, swept through Iowa and Illinois in the north central U.S. Corn Belt. Damage estimates from the derecho range up to US$11.2 billion, with significant impacts to crops, stored grain, and property throughout its path. Fourteen field locations of short-statured maize research hybrids were growing within the path of the derecho, where data was collected on their lodging damage resistance compared with isogenic and near isogenic tall counterparts. For short-stature maize, an average of 25% of plants were damaged, compared with 50% for isogenic tall hybrids (across all locations; p = .0009). This decreased lodging damage was associated with a mean estimated yield advantage of 1.57 t ha^–1 for short-stature maize across the breadth of the storm (p = .0011). Economic and environmental models indicated that planting short-stature maize hybrid across the storm area could have prevented the loss of approximately $938 million in revenue and 1.48 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents.

中文翻译：

---

矮小玉米减少了 2020 年中西部 derecho 期间的风害，提高了产量并减少了温室气体排放

随着气候变化影响的增加，未来的农业系统将需要变得更具弹性。气候变化的一个预期结果是强雷暴和高速直线风的增加。2020 年 8 月，一场 derecho 风暴席卷了美国中北部玉米带的爱荷华州和伊利诺伊州，这是一团产生高速、持续时间长的直线风的雷暴。derecho 造成的损失估计高达 112 亿美元，对沿途的农作物、储存的谷物和财产造成重大影响。矮矮玉米研究杂交种的 14 个田间位置在 derecho 的路径内生长，在那里收集了它们与等基因和近等基因的高大对应物相比的抗倒伏损害性的数据。对于矮小玉米，平均有 25% 的植株受损，p  = .0009）。这种减少的倒伏损害与风暴范围内矮株玉米的平均估计产量优势 1.57 t ha ^{–1有关 (} p  = .0011)。经济和环境模型表明，在风暴区种植矮矮玉米杂交种本可以避免大约 9.38 亿美元的收入损失和 148 万公吨的 CO ₂当量。