Developing stress intensity index and prioritizing hotspot locations for screening wheat genotypes under climate change scenario

Abstract

Projected changes in the frequency and severity of climatic events are expected to negatively affect wheat yields. India being the sub-continent reflects all global climatic conditions is greatly prone to micro climatic changes. In this scenario, there is an exigency to relook into our abiotic hotspot centres for their consistency to use them for wheat germplasm screening. The present study is a first of its kind to analyze the status of drought and heat stress hotspots for wheat screening in India. We developed a unique analytical approach considering 11 years daily weather variables (indicators) like maximum and minimum temperature, maximum and minimum humidity and rainfall to re-prioritize the experimental locations according to their stress intensity index. The principal component analysis based indexing revealed that some of the locations like Dharwad, Indore, Pune and Parbhani are maintaining high stress intensity and a few centres like Kanpur, Faizabad and Malda are having lower stress intensity. Interestingly, Ranchi, a centre which was not recognized much as a hotspot earlier, but over years started to experience high drought stress in the recent decade. The study also indicates that the changes in minimum humidity have contributed significantly for the stress intensity. The outcome of the study will help researchers in prioritizing the experimental sites for screening wheat under heat and drought stress, in limited resource scenario and also to understand the micro environmental changes.