Maize yield is sensitive to high temperatures, and most large scale analyses have used a single, fixed sensitivity to represent this vulnerability over the course of a growing season. Field scale studies, in contrast, highlight how temperature sensitivity varies over the course of development. Here we couple United States Department of Agriculture yield and development data from 1981–2012 with weather station data to resolve temperature sensitivity according to both region and growth interval.

High temperatures are associated with reduced crop yields and predictions for future warming have raised concerns regarding future productivity and food security. However, the extent to which adaptation can mitigate such heat-related losses remains unclear. Here we empirically demonstrate how maize is locally adapted to hot temperatures across US counties.

Sea levels during the last interglacial stage (about 125 kyr ago) are known to have been higher than today, and may serve as a partial analogue for anthropogenic warming scenarios. However, because local sea levels differ from global sea level, accurately reconstructing past global sea level requires an integrated analysis of globally distributed data sets.