Responses of irrigated winter wheat yield in North China to increased temperature and elevated CO2 concentration

North China is one of the main regions of irrigated winter wheat production in China. Climate warming is apparent in this region, especially during the growing season of winter wheat. To understand how the yield of irrigated winter wheat in North China might be affected by climate warming and CO 2 concentration enrichment in future, a set of manipulative field experiments was conducted in a site in the North China Plain under increased temperature and elevated CO 2 concentration by using open top chambers and infrared radiator heaters. The results indicated that an average temperature increase of 1.7°C in the growing season with CO 2 concentration of 560 μmol mol −1 did not reduce the yield of irrigated winter wheat. The thousandkernel weight of winter wheat did not change significantly despite improvement in the filling rate, because the increased temperature shortened the duration of grain filling. The number of effective panicles and the grain number per ear of winter wheat did not show significant changes. There was a large increase in the shoot biomass because of the increase in stem number and plant height. Consequently, under the prescribed scenario of asymmetric temperature increases and elevated CO 2 concentration, the yield of irrigated winter wheat in North China is not likely to change significantly, but the harvest index of winter wheat is likely to be greatly reduced.