Response to climate change for potato water use efficiency in semi-arid areas of China

• The drought trend of China's semi-arid areas has dramatically intensified in the past 50 years.
• We studied the impact of climate change on potato water use efficiency.
• When temperature increased by 1.5 °C and precipitation was <310.0 mm, the potato water use efficiency tended to decline.
• Climate change in the next 50 years may have an impact on potato water use efficiency.

The drought trend of China's semi-arid areas has dramatically intensified in the past 50 years as a result of global climate change, which clearly affects crop production and water use. This paper, selecting the semi-arid area of Guyuan in China as the research base, is a study of the impact of climate change on potato water use efficiency (WUE), using temperature rise and precipitation simulation testing. The results showed that when temperature increased by >1.5 °C and precipitation was <310.0 mm, WUE tended to decline. This indicates that the global climate change in the next 50 years may have an impact on potato WUE in semi-arid areas of China.