Integrating pests and pathogens into the climate change/food security debate
TL;DR: 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.
Abstract: 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.
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TL;DR: It is argued that nascent fungal infections will cause increasing attrition of biodiversity, with wider implications for human and ecosystem health, unless steps are taken to tighten biosecurity worldwide.
Abstract: The past two decades have seen an increasing number of virulent infectious diseases in natural populations and managed landscapes. In both animals and plants, an unprecedented number of fungal and fungal-like diseases have recently caused some of the most severe die-offs and extinctions ever witnessed in wild species, and are jeopardizing food security. Human activity is intensifying fungal disease dispersal by modifying natural environments and thus creating new opportunities for evolution. We argue that nascent fungal infections will cause increasing attrition of biodiversity, with wider implications for human and ecosystem health, unless steps are taken to tighten biosecurity worldwide.
2,408 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a comprehensive summary of studies that simulate climate change impacts on agriculture are reported in a meta-analysis, which suggests that aggregate yield losses should be expected for wheat, rice and maize in temperate and tropical growing regions even under relatively moderate levels of local warming.
Abstract: A comprehensive summary of studies that simulate climate change impacts on agriculture are now reported in a meta-analysis. Findings suggest that, without measures to adapt to changing conditions, aggregate yield losses should be expected for wheat, rice and maize in temperate and tropical growing regions even under relatively moderate levels of local warming.
1,458 citations
TL;DR: This work proposes a framework based on ideas from global-change biology, community ecology, and invasion biology that uses community modules to assess how species interactions shape responses to climate change.
Abstract: Predicting the impacts of climate change on species is one of the biggest challenges that ecologists face Predictions routinely focus on the direct effects of climate change on individual species, yet interactions between species can strongly influence how climate change affects organisms at every scale by altering their individual fitness, geographic ranges and the structure and dynamics of their community Failure to incorporate these interactions limits the ability to predict responses of species to climate change We propose a framework based on ideas from global-change biology, community ecology, and invasion biology that uses community modules to assess how species interactions shape responses to climate change
1,169 citations
01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: The questions for this chapter are how far climate and its change affect current food production systems and food security and the extent to which they will do so in the future.
Abstract: Many definitions of food security exist, and these have been the subject of much debate. As early as 1992, Maxwell and Smith (1992) reviewed more than 180 items discussing concepts and definitions, and more definitions have been formulated since (DEFRA, 2006). Whereas many earlier definitions centered on food production, more recent definitions highlight access to food, in keeping with the 1996 World Food Summit definition (FAO, 1996) that food security is met when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” Worldwide attention on food access was given impetus by the food “price spike” in 2007–2008, triggered by a complex set of long- and short-term factors (FAO, 2009b; von Braun and Torero, 2009). FAO concluded, “provisional estimates show that, in 2007, 75 million more people were added to the total number of undernourished relative to 2003–05” (FAO, 2008); this is arguably a low-end estimate (Headey and Fan, 2010). More than enough food is currently produced per capita to feed the global population, yet about 870 million people remained hungry in the period from 2010 to 2012 (FAO et al., 2012). The questions for this chapter are how far climate and its change affect current food production systems and food security and the extent to which they will do so in the future (Figure 7-1).
960 citations
Cites background from "Integrating pests and pathogens int..."
...The potential influence of pests and diseases is commonly beyond the scope of such studies (Gregory et al., 2009)....
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TL;DR: This paper reviews recent literature concerning a wide range of processes through which climate change could potentially impact global-scale agricultural productivity, and presents projections of changes in relevant meteorological, hydrological and plant physiological quantities from a climate model ensemble to illustrate key areas of uncertainty.
Abstract: This paper reviews recent literature concerning a wide range of processes through which climate change could potentially impact global-scale agricultural productivity, and presents projections of changes in relevant meteorological, hydrological and plant physiological quantities from a climate model ensemble to illustrate key areas of uncertainty. Few global-scale assessments have been carried out, and these are limited in their ability to capture the uncertainty in climate projections, and omit potentially important aspects such as extreme events and changes in pests and diseases. There is a lack of clarity on how climate change impacts on drought are best quantified from an agricultural perspective, with different metrics giving very different impressions of future risk. The dependence of some regional agriculture on remote rainfall, snowmelt and glaciers adds to the complexity. Indirect impacts via sea-level rise, storms and diseases have not been quantified. Perhaps most seriously, there is high uncertainty in the extent to which the direct effects of CO2 rise on plant physiology will interact with climate change in affecting productivity. At present, the aggregate impacts of climate change on global-scale agricultural productivity cannot be reliably quantified.
828 citations
Cites background from "Integrating pests and pathogens int..."
...This may be through impacts of warming or drought on the resistance of crops to specific diseases and through the increased pathogenicity of organisms by mutation induced by environmental stress (Gregory et al. 2009)....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors attempted to assess the ecosystem health of Korean pine and broad-leaved mixed forest under various human disturbances, and the results showed that the health degree was in the order of 20% intensity selective cutting stand (0.21) < 50% intensity selective cutting stand(0.44) < middle and mature Birch stand ( 0.67) < youth birch stand( 0.72) < Korean pine plantation (0.,74) < larch plantation(0.,77).
Abstract: On the bases of samples investment and related data collected by others, and with the method of health distance assessment and the ecosystem health index system of Korean pine and broad-leaved mixed forest established in prior paper, this paper attempted to assess the ecosystem health of Korean pine and broad-leaved mixed forest under various human disturbances. The results showed that the health degree was in the order of 20% intensity selective cutting stand (0.21) < 50% intensity selective cutting stand (0.44) < middle and mature birch stand (0.67) < youth birch stand (0.72) < Korean pine plantation (0.74) < larch plantation (0.77).
57 citations
"Integrating pests and pathogens int..." refers background in this paper
...For example, conditions in the UK in 1975 and 1976 were particularly beneficial for aphids in terms of early development and reduced overwintering mortality, leading to large increases in aphid populations, including the cereal aphids Sitobion avenae and Metopolophium dirhodum (Jones, 1979)....
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TL;DR: The effects of various temperature regimes on each stage of the parasitism process of Orobanche cumana and O. aegyptiaca on sunflower were studied and the ability to reject the parasite by causing its degeneration and death is the main factor that determines the resistance.
Abstract: The effects of various temperature regimes in the range 29-17/21-9 degrees C day/night on each stage of the parasitism process of Orobanche cumana and O. aegyptiaca on sunflower were studied under controlled conditions in polyethylene bags. The response of the resistant sunflower variety 'Ambar' was expressed as the degeneration of the parasite tissues after its establishment in the plant roots, and this stage was found to be temperature dependent. The degeneration rate of Orobanche tubercles in the resistant sunflower variety was also found to be temperature dependent and was about five times as great as that in the sensitive variety in the highest temperature regime tested of 29/21 degrees C day/night. The ability to reject the parasite by causing its degeneration and death is the main factor that determines the resistance. As the temperature rises, more tubercles degenerate and die, that is the sunflower plant expresses higher levels of resistance.
53 citations
"Integrating pests and pathogens int..." refers background in this paper
...Expression of resistance to broomrape in sunflower (Eizenberg et al., 2003), black shank resistance in tobacco (Sanden and Moore, 1978) and rice resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Webb et al. in Garrett et al., 2006) provide other examples of temperature sensitivity....
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...Expression of resistance to broomrape in sunflower (Eizenberg et al., 2003), black shank resistance in tobacco (Sanden and Moore, 1978) and rice resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae pv....
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01 Jan 1999
53 citations
"Integrating pests and pathogens int..." refers background in this paper
...Many assessments of climate change effects on crops have focused on potential yields, but factors such as pests and pathogens have major effects in determining actual yields (Gregory et al., 1999)....
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...Gregory et al. (1999) summarized experimental findings on wheat and rice crops that indicated decreased crop duration (and hence yield) of wheat as a consequence of warming, and reductions in yields of rice of about 5% per C rise above 32 C. Similarly, simulations of maize production in Africa and…...
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...…in actual field and farm level responses because they are derived from experiments and crop models that do not necessarily take limiting factors such as pests and pathogens, competition, nutrient competition, and soil water fully into account (Gregory et al., 1999; Tubiello et al., 2007b)....
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...However, it is widely recognized that these figures are likely to represent an overestimate in actual field and farm level responses because they are derived from experiments and crop models that do not necessarily take limiting factors such as pests and pathogens, competition, nutrient competition, and soil water fully into account (Gregory et al., 1999; Tubiello et al., 2007b)....
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Book•
02 Oct 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the root feeders from an ecosystem perspective are discussed from a root-feeders' perspective, and the authors propose a root feeder-based ecosystem perspective.
Abstract: Root feeders: an ecosystem perspective , Root feeders: an ecosystem perspective , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی
52 citations