The pervasive impact of global climate change on plant-nematode interaction continuum

Abstract

Pest profiles in today’s global food production system are continually affected by climate change and extreme weather. Under varying climatic conditions, plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) cause substantial economic damage to a wide variety of agricultural and horticultural commodities. In parallel, their herbivory also accredit to diverse ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, allocation and turnover of plant biomass, shaping of vegetation community, and alteration of rhizospheric microorganism consortium by modifying the root exudation pattern. Thus PPNs, together with the vast majority of free-living nematodes, act as ecological drivers. Because of direct exposure to the open environment, PPN biology and physiology are largely governed by environmental factors including temperature, precipitation, humidity, atmospheric and soil carbon dioxide level, and weather extremes. The negative effects of climate change such as global warming, elevated CO2, altered precipitation and the weather extremes including heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms greatly influence the biogeographic range, distribution, abundance, survival, fitness, reproduction, and parasitic potential of the PPNs. Changes in these biological and ecological parameters associated to the PPNs exert huge impact on agriculture. Yet, depending on how adaptable the species are according to their geo-spatial distribution, the consequences of climate change include both positive and negative effects on the PPN communities. While assorting the effects of climate change as a whole, it can be estimated that the changing environmental factors, on one hand, will aggravate the PPN damage by aiding to abundance, distribution, reproduction, generation, plant growth and reduced plant defense, but the phenomena like sex reversal, entering cryptobiosis, and reduced survival should act in counter direction. This seemingly creates a contraposition effect, where assessing any confluent trend is difficult. However, as the climate change effects will differ according to space and time it is apprehensible that the PPNs will react and adapt according to their location and species specificity. Nevertheless, the bio-ecological shifts in the PPNs will necessitate tweaking their management practices from the agri-horticultural perspective. In this regard, we must aim for a ‘climate-smart’ package that will take care of the food production, pest prevention and environment protection. Integrated nematode management involving precise monitoring and modeling-based studies of population dynamics in relation to climatic fluctuations with escalated reliance on biocontrol, host resistance, and other safer approaches like crop rotation, crop scheduling, cover cropping, biofumigation, use of farmyard manure (FYM) would surely prove to be viable options. Although the novel nematicidal molecules are target-specific and relatively less harmful to the environment, their application should not be promoted following the global aim to reduce pesticide usage in future agriculture. Thus, having a reliable risk assessment with scenario planning, the adaptive management strategies must be designed to cope with the impending situation and satisfy the farmers’ need.

Biosecurity risks to human food supply associated with plant-parasitic nematodes

“…Changes in precipitation patterns can affect soil moisture levels, which can in turn impact nematode survival and activity. Increased precipitation can create more humid conditions that favor activity for certain PPNs ( Decraemer and Hunt, 2006 ), reniform nematodes in particular ( Dutta and Phani, 2023 ). These nematodes are pathogens of cotton, soybean, and most vegetables and tend to thrive in soils with a moderate amount of sand ( Grabau, 2017 ).…”

Linking Nematode Communities and Soil Health under Climate Change

“…As polyphagous organisms, natural selection will most likely push herbivorous nematodes to adapt to new conditions, so current management options may not suffice [108]. Instead, we should focus on reducing crop loss and enhancing ecosystem services, both of which will work in our favor, and implement adaptative management strategies against plantparasitic nematodes, to keep them below damaging thresholds [109]. On the other hand, conservation agriculture and organic farming can improve the abundance and biomass of soil taxa, while stimulating the activity of beneficial nematodes and positively shifting the structure of the soil food web [110].…”

Exploring the mechanisms of host-specificity of a hyperparasitic bacterium (Pasteuria spp.) with potential to control tropical root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.): insights from Caenorhabditis elegans

“…Since the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson in 1962 there has been increasing concern over the use of broad-spectrum chemical pesticides ( van Emden and Peakall, 1996 ), a concern that continues to this today. Nematicides are no exception ( Davies and Spiegel, 2011 ) and climate change, along with the increasing global threats to ecosystem health, has only exacerbated these concerns ( Fisher et al., 2012 ; Dutta and Phani, 2023 ). Biological control and the use of a pests’ natural enemies has remained an active area of research as one among several potential solutions.…”