Fig. 1: Historical changes in maize grain yield in the US Corn Belt.
From: Large increases in maize residue carbon inputs in the US Corn Belt from 1980 to 2020
Grain yield is reported at 0% grain moisture. A Maps represent county-level yields in 1980, in 2020, and the difference between 2020 and 1980 (source USDA-NASS6). B Regional scale, G × E × M effects, illustrates temporal trends in USDA-NASS yields across the US Corn Belt: red line indicates the counties’ weighted average value, the internal dashed lines represent the 1st and 3rd quartiles, and external dashed lines represent the 5th and 95th percentiles. C Field experiments, Breeding effect, illustrates grain yields versus year of hybrids release from field experiments (54 hybrids released from 1980 to 2020 across 31 locations, see Supplementary Fig. 1 for the distribution of the experiments). Blue circles and orange squares represent short-maturity (100–105 days) and long-maturity (109–115 days) hybrids, respectively.
