Do nonlinear temperature effects indicate severe damages to US crop yields under climate change?

Based on historical analyses of crop yield in the US, productivity would (depending on the climatic scenario) nonlinearly and dramatically decrease by 30–82% above threshold values of 29 °C (corn), 30 °C (soybean), and 32 °C (cotton) (1). We believe that this is a rather pessimistic view. Crop yields still increase because of the development and adoption of new technologies and improved farm management. Recently, technology was reported as the most important driver of productivity change (2), outweighing the effects of climate change and increasing CO