Global warming may have eradicated maize

Drought affects the growth of maize

There are few options of getting carbohydrate which is essential for human’s body to metabolite. They are wheat, paddy rice, cassava, and maize which most of them are grown in tropical temperature. However, these plants require water to grow so during the pollinating seasons they could increase their productivity. However, recent research suggested that if the Earth’s temperature gets warmer, the maize might have decreased its grain implying the possibility of extinction.

Maize or corn, is one of the biggest grain plant growing in tropical and sub-tropical region, is consumed by people from Central America commonly in form of cereal crop. In some Eastern and Southern Asian countries, this grain crop is processed into powder which is utilized for baking process. Maize, which has Latin name as Zea Mays, are categorized as grass plant. So, as grass plant, maize is actually easy to grow with understandable conditions, such as normal temperature, enough source of water, and also the most important thing is the solar radiation to do photosynthesis.

In metabolism, carbohydrates are required because of the sugar content within it. This organic compound actually is sugar, however, the phase is in form of either starches or fibers which typically found from fruits, vegetables, and grains plants. Although carbohydrates are the main factors of causing diabetes types 2 and obesity for many people around the world, these starches sugar are the main source of sugar which will be metabolizing inside our body. And according to Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the carbohydrate contents from maize are averagely around 65 to 75 per cent of the kernel weight.

Maize is one the main source of carbohydrate

So, what is the association between extreme temperature to the growth of plant? According to the referenced paper, the extreme temperature significantly reduces the maize grains as much as eighty per cent from normal temperature. The associations were water deficits and excess soil water implying to the adaptation strategies which force the plant to create suitable and proper respond. Although there is no major effect on the leaf, but how the reproduction stage is affected by the presence of warmer temperatures?

Global warming creates significance condition of environment causing severe damage including drought which essentially disturbs the development of plants. As a result, global warming influences the plant growth aspects, such as morphology, physiology and reproduction stage. All of those aspects are influenced because of the uptake capacity and photosynthetic efficiency are abnormal. These limited characteristics are related to the metabolism process of plants – in this case is maize – so the evapotranspiration, photosynthesis, respiration are disturbed affecting in reducing the maize life cycle.

To be concluded, the greenhouse effect implies the increasing of carbon dioxide level and temperatures creating anomalies of weather and climate in certain areas. Consequently, severe environmental damages related to water availability and solar radiation influences the phenological development of maize so the reproductive stages are affected causing the grains becoming smaller. Furthermore, drought and warmer temperature may have created maize into extinction.

References:

[1] Image is downloaded from www.britannica.com

[2] Image is downloaded from https://ourworld.unu.edu