Abstract: A sowing date experiment of 3 maize varieties was conducted at Jinzhou agro meteorological experimental station in 2007 and 2008.Based on average temperature of Jinzhou meteorological observation station,maize growth characteristics and responses to air temperature change were analyzed with comparison and regression method.The results showed that there was a significant correlation between seedling emergence speed and the mean temperature from the 10 days before sowing to seedling,the higher the mean temperature,the faster the seedling emergence which had little to do with maize varieties.After the seedling emergence,if mean temperature was high,the growth rates of medium maturity and late maturing maize became fast.After jointing,the increment of maize height and maximum leaf area index were related to ecological characteristic instead of temperature.The influence of temperature change to dry biomass increasing rate varied with different growth stages,high temperature of the stages (0-20 days after the seedling emergence,40-60 days after the seedling emergence) had positive effect to leaf and stem weight increasing,and high temperature of the stage (60 to 80 days after seedling emergence) had a positive effect to grain filling.The hundred seed weight and the yield had positive correlations with mean temperature of the stage from tasseling to milk,and had negative correlations with mean temperature of the stage from milk to maturity.

Key words: Spring maize, Temperature change, Growth and development, Northeast China