Climate Change Effects on Plant Disease: Genomes to Ecosystems

Abstract

Research in the effects of climate change on plant disease continues to be limited, but some striking progress has been made. At the genomic level, advances in technologies for the high-throughput analysis of gene expression have made it possible to begin discriminating responses to different biotic and abiotic stressors and potential trade-offs in responses. At the scale of the individual plant, enough experiments have been performed to begin synthesizing the effects of climate variables on infection rates, though pathosystemspecific characteristics make synthesis challenging. Models of plant disease have now been developed to incorporate more sophisticated climate predictions. At the population level, the adaptive potential of plant and pathogen populations may prove to be one of the most important predictors of the magnitude of climate change effects. Ecosystem ecologists are now addressing the role of plant disease in ecosystem processes and the challenge of scaling up from individual infection probabilities to epidemics and broader impacts.

Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: A Global Initiative to Collect, Conserve, and Use Crop Wild Relatives

“…This is important since the ranges of many plant pathogens are predicted to shift with the changing climate and, therefore, many areas of the world may experience disease pressures not previously faced (Garrett et al 2006). Counterintuitively, CWR have also contributed to increased yields and to quality traits, despite the wild species themselves displaying poor values for those traits (Tanksley and McCouch 1997).…”

Mejoramiento genético acelerado de angiospermas perennes vía inducción floral por sobre-expresión del gen FT

“…Adicionalmente, el cambio climático puede exacerbar las amenazas bióticas, por los efectos sobre la biología, fisiología y dinámica de las poblaciones, así como las relaciones ecológicas entre los agentes patógenos con el resto de la biota en su ecosistema (Garrett et al, 2006).…”

Disease in Natural Plant Populations, Communities, and Ecosystems: Insights into Ecological and Evolutionary Processes

“…Effects of global change are challenging to study: numerous attributes of the abiotic and biotic environment are projected to change (i.e., temperature, CO 2 levels, nutrient levels, species diversity) at various rates across the earth, and the impacts of these changes are likely to be species and location dependent. Garrett et al (52) argues persuasively that consideration of these diverse issues requires a broad research agenda that ranges from the genome to the ecosystem.…”

“…Global warming could alter disease processes in many ways, including reduced mortality of pathogens in winter, increased number of pathogen generations per year, or shifting of host or pathogen geographic ranges (40,52,62). Roy et al (111) took advantage of a meadow warming study in a montane community to examine pathogen and herbivore damage on plant species exposed to higher temperatures.…”