Integrating pests and pathogens into the climate change/food security debate

Gregory, P. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4118-4833, Johnson, S. N., Newton, A. C. and Ingram, J. S. I. (2009) Integrating pests and pathogens into the climate change/food security debate. Journal of Experimental Botany, 60 (10). pp. 2827-2838. ISSN 0022-0957 doi: 10.1093/jxb/erp080

Abstract/Summary

While many studies have demonstrated the sensitivities of plants and of crop yield to a changing climate, a major challenge for the agricultural research community is to relate these findings to the broader societal concern with food security. This paper reviews the direct effects of climate on both crop growth and yield and on plant pests and pathogens and the interactions that may occur between crops, pests, and pathogens under changed climate. Finally, we consider the contribution that better understanding of the roles of pests and pathogens in crop production systems might make to enhanced food security. Evidence for the measured climate change on crops and their associated pests and pathogens is starting to be documented. Globally atmospheric [CO(2)] has increased, and in northern latitudes mean temperature at many locations has increased by about 1.0-1.4 degrees C with accompanying changes in pest and pathogen incidence and to farming practices. Many pests and pathogens exhibit considerable capacity for generating, recombining, and selecting fit combinations of variants in key pathogenicity, fitness, and aggressiveness traits that there is little doubt that any new opportunities resulting from climate change will be exploited by them. However, the interactions between crops and pests and pathogens are complex and poorly understood in the context of climate change. More mechanistic inclusion of pests and pathogen effects in crop models would lead to more realistic predictions of crop production on a regional scale and thereby assist in the development of more robust regional food security policies.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/28143
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	No Reading authors. Back catalogue items Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Walker Institute Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Centre for Food Security Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Crop Science
Uncontrolled Keywords	Crop-pathogen interactions; crop-pest interactions; crop productivity; yield; atmospheric carbon-dioxide; elevated CO2; Food security; plant-disease; herbivore interactions; Puccinia-Striiformis; environmental-change; Escherichia-Coli; Southern Africa; drought stress
Publisher	Oxford University Press
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