A MODEL OF POTENTIAL MAIZE YIELD IN RELATION TO ACCUMULATED TEMPERATURE AND ITS APPLICATION IN ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE^*

Plant breeding for different maturities plays an important role in agricultural strategies for adaptation to climatic change.In this paper using the data of ten corn hybrids with early,medium and late maturities and different leaf angles,including erectophile and planophile,observed in Beijing,Yanqing,Tai'an,Gongzhuling of Jilin and Shihezi of Xinjiang,a normal growing function was derived on the basis of the main pattern of accumulated dry matter:W=1/1+exp(8.56-13.52u) In accordance with the function authors built up a model of potential maximum biomass which depends on accumulated temperature Bmax=100+1.11∑Tm(kg/mu)(1ha=15mu) The model was applied to estimate the potential corn yield of hybrids with different maturities,and applications of the results in assessing the impact of climatic change are discussed.