Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world population. The projected global warming is expected to substantially reduce rice yield due to heat-induced spikelet sterility (HISS) particularly in hot and vulnerable rice-growing regions. Therefore, understanding the occurrence of HISS has become an urgent issue that should be dealt with accordingly to advance efforts towards adaptation to global warming. Generally, however, the environmental data in crop field such as canopy micrometeorology directly related with HISS are lacking or missing globally, which may cause the incorrect understanding of the current situation and the incorrect evaluation of the effectiveness of adaptation measures.

To overcome this situation, we established a network for monitoring the rice canopy thermal environment in paddy fields and for collecting other crop data (MINCERnet) and have started a new phase of research focusing on the genetic adaptation to climate change and the elucidation of the mechanism of multiple stresses.

In this symposium, the MINCERnet collaborators will give presentations on the current status of the canopy thermal environment monitoring and various perspectives on HISS. There will be discussions on ongoing and future research plans, and collaborative strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of promising adaptation measures such as introducing heat tolerant varieties and heat avoidance due to early-morning flowering trait among varied climates.

This monitoring network research is supported by the Global Environmental Research Fund from the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Number 15H02650.