Responses of spikelet fertility to air,spikelet, and panicle temperatures and vapor pressure deficit in rice

High temperature-induced spikelet sterility is expected to become a major factor reducing rice yield under the future climate conditions. To examine the responses of spikelet sterility to air temperature, humidity, and temperatures of panicle and spikelet, two japonica rice cultivars in different maturity groups were exposed to four sets of different temperature conditions from initial heading stage in 2013 and 2014. The temperature conditions included ambient temperature (AT), AT + 1.5°C, AT + 3.0°C, and AT + 5.0°C. Spikelet fertility showed a wide range of variation from 100 to 4.6% depending on temperature treatments. The ridge regression revealed that not only air temperature but also vapor pressure deficit (VPD) was negatively associated with spikelet fertility. The spikelet fertility was well fitted to logistic equations not only of air temperature, spikelet internal temperature, and panicle surface temperature but also of VPD. No clear difference in the accuracy of sterility estimation was observed for models that use air temperature, panicle or spikelet temperature as inputs. In contrast, the logistic equation model that uses both air temperature and VPD as independent variables had better accuracy in predicting spikelet sterility. These results suggested that spikelet or panicle temperature would be no better predictor for high temperature-induced spikelet sterility than air temperature. Therefore, further study is merited to verify the VPD effects on spikelet sterility under high temperature conditions.