Climate Change and Pathways Used by Pests as Challenges to Plant Health in Agriculture and Forestry

Abstract

Climate change already challenges people’s livelihood globally and it also affects plant health. Rising temperatures facilitate the introduction and establishment of unwanted organisms, including arthropods, pathogens, and weeds (hereafter collectively called pests). For example, a single, unusually warm winter under temperate climatic conditions may be sufficient to assist the establishment of invasive plant pests, which otherwise would not be able to establish. In addition, the increased market globalization and related transport of recent years, coupled with increased temperatures, has led to favorable conditions for pest movement, invasion, and establishment worldwide. Most published studies indicate that, in general, pest risk will increase in agricultural ecosystems under climate-change scenarios, especially in today’s cooler arctic, boreal, temperate, and subtropical regions. This is also mostly true for forestry. Some pests have already expanded their host range or distribution, at least in part due to changes in climate. Examples of these pests, selected according to their relevance in different geographical areas, are summarized here. The main pathways used by them, directly and/or indirectly, are also discussed. Understanding these pathways can support decisions about mitigation and adaptation measures. The review concludes that preventive mitigation and adaptation measures, including biosecurity, are key to reducing the projected increases in pest risk in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. Therefore, the sustainable management of pests is urgently needed. It requires holistic solutions, including effective phytosanitary regulations, globally coordinated diagnostic and surveillance systems, pest risk modeling and analysis, and preparedness for pro-active management.

Beyond the present: How climate change is relevant to pest risk analysis

“…Reynaud et al (2009) showed that vector abundance (Cicadulina mbila and Peregrinus maidis) and the incidence of viral disease (maize streak virus) were closely related to temperature, increasing rapidly above 24°C, but decreasing above 30°C, a temperature that is detrimental to both the vector and the virus transmission success. This suggests that global warming might promote many insect vectors and the pathogens they transmit, at least within a certain temperature range (Gullino et al, 2022). Aphids are expected to have higher reproductive rates in warmer spring/summer and a higher survival rate in milder winters, which could influence the amount of viral inoculum and the incidence of viral disease transmission and spread (Skendžić et al, 2021), as highlighted in the epidemic of aphid-transmitted viruses in melon crops in Spain (Alonso-Prados et al, 2003).…”

“…Climate change is one of several factors presenting an increasingly important threat to ‘plant health’ (Gullino et al., 2022; Hosseinzadeh‐Bandbafha et al., 2023; IPPC Secretariat, 2021; Pautasso et al., 2010). Plant health is a term used to summarize the activities of national plant protection organizations and their legislative and administrative procedures designed to prevent plant pests from entering and spreading within their territories (MacLeod et al., 2010).…”

An unexpected explosion while fumigating a grain silo: It wasn't the dust

“…Globally, infestations of pests erase 10%–28% of all crop productions 1 . Pesticide sprays and dusts effectively combat infestations in production fields but they lack efficacy in large‐scale crop storage where the interstitial volumes are not easily accessible (e.g., a 9000 mt grain storage silo).…”

Integrated Biological Control of the Sugar Beet Weevil Asproparthenis punctiventris with the Fungus Metarhizium brunneum: New Application Approaches

“…Since the beginnings of agriculture, there has been a struggle to avoid pest populations in order to guarantee our food supply [ 1 , 2 ]. The more abundant, severe and crop-threatening a pest is, the more effort is needed to solve the pest problem [ 3 ].…”