Climate-driven heat and drought are increasing the frequency of low yields or failure for some of the world’s most important food crops, according to a University of B.C.-led study.

The study, published this week in Science Advances and involving researchers from UBC and Harvard University, is the first to show how changes in temperature and soil moisture will likely affect yields for three main summer crops: corn, soybean and sorghum.

Using modelling data, the researchers project that for every degree of warming, year-to-year variability in yields rises by seven per cent for corn, 19 per cent for soybeans and 10 per cent for sorghum.

Jonathan Proctor, an assistant professor at UBC’s faculty of land and food systems and the study’s lead author, said they combined historical data on

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