The timing of drought, early season, mid-season or terminal stage, has a major influence on how much yield loss occurs (Fischer et al. 2003).
However, what these analyses also clearly showed was that the intensity and timing of drought events was just as important in determining annual growth patterns.
Considerable variations in the timing of drought stress (the crop growth stage that experienced the drought stress), duration, and intensity were observed in both managed and target environment trials (Table 1).
Moreover, each of these identified QTLs has shown a yield advantage of 300 500 kg ha− 1 under RS drought stress depending upon the severity and timing of the drought occurrence.
Through drought escape, timing of plant lifecycle is modulated to escape the time of drought when drought time is predictable in each year.
Not only did Stahle's study bracket the timing of the drought to 897 922 ce, but it also revealed that this drought event was more widespread than previously surmised, affecting regions as far north as central Mexico.
For example, "climate change can affect forests by altering the frequency, intensity, duration, and timing of fire, drought, introduced species, insect and pathogens outbreaks, hurricanes, windstorms, ice storms, or landslides" (Dale et al. 2001).
However, direct selection for yield under drought in TEs is difficult because of differences in the timing and severity of drought over seasons.
In the target environment, the lines experienced varying timings, durations, and intensities of drought stress.
Stahle's sampling stretched back 1,238 years, which enabled him to document the timing of several significant periods of drought, including the event during the Terminal Classic period that was credited with the collapse of the Mayan civilization.
Both rainfall records and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) imagery reveal the period 2000 to 2001 was a covariate drought shock that covered the entire study area (McPeak et al. 2012 2001 to 200202 was the initial phase of a longer recovery, though the timing of the transition from drought to recovery in 2001 revealed some spatial variation.
