The Carpathian Basin is especially exposed to the changes in the climate because the impacts of the terrain strengthen the consequences of extreme weather events as well as the long-term climatic changes. It was confirmed that the rise in the yearly average temperature was two times faster in this inner lowland area than the global average.

The weather conditions of the region are formed by three major climatic regimes, Continental, Oceanic and Mediterranean. The overdominance of the Mediterranean climate is observable which resulted in more humid and mild winters and warm and moderately wet summers with more frequent extreme heatwaves. Conventional breeding of cereals is even a very long process therefore, the adaptation ability of the released cultivars to the challenges posed by the abiotic stressors becomes a critical issue. However, the basin is rich in above and belowground freshwater resources, but irrigation of small grain cereals is unrealistic from an economic point of view.

The efficient utilization of the available soil water in combination with a good drought tolerance is the only possible way to increase the sustainability of cereal production. In the Centre for Agricultural Research, the focus is on the determination of the water demand and water use efficiency as well as the rooting habits of cereal species under controlled environments and real field conditions.

A model experimental system was developed by using pots with a volume of 10 litres to determine the water uptake and its trend during the vegetation period while simulation of drought is possible at different phenophases. Generally, it was concluded that early-ripening varieties are especially sensitive to drought in the vegetative growth stages while the impacts of the water shortage were more severe in the generative stages by late-ripening genotypes. The dynamics of the daily water use of winter wheat genotypes is under investigation in a scientific lysimeter system (Meter Group, Germany) consisting of 12 soil columns (1 meter in diameter and 2 meters in depth).

The root system has key functions in determining the adaptation ability of plants to the water-limited environment. The root development and its morphological features are investigated under controlled conditions in climate chambers. Large containers (volume: 1 m3) filled with soil were applied for in situ monitoring of the root development and turnover by using a CI-600 (CID Bioscience, USA) root scanner at different soil depths and the photos were analyzed by the RootSnap software.

A sand tube system (diameter 10 cm, depth: 75 cm) is applied to analyze the impacts of the water shortage simulated at various developmental stages. At the end of the treatments or the vegetation period the complete root system in its original structure was carefully washed out of the sand and the root properties were determined by the WinRHIZO Pro (Regent Instruments, Canada) analytical system.

It was concluded that the presence of the dwarfing genes (Rht1 and Rht2) significantly reduced the root length and root biomass compared to the control (without dwarfing genes) but the presence of the Rht2 was more favourable.

Acknowledgements: The researches were supported by the TKP2021-NKTA-06 project provided by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungary from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund and the Bolyai János Research Fund No: BO/00384/23/4