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CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON PLANT PATHOGENS AND PLANT DISEASES

What are the possible effects of climate change on plant diseases?Changes in environmental conditions will, therefore, affect the level of diseases

Climate change may directly affect several aspects of the biology of host plants, including their phenology.Key-features

A plant disease is the result of interaction among a susceptible host plant, a virulent pathogen (or more than one) and the environment.In these pages you will find an explanation of the possible effects of climate on the interaction among environment, plant and pathogen, which are the key factors in plant disease development.May it affect the use of chemicals in agriculture?1.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON PLANT PATHOGENS AND PLANT DISEASES

What are the possible effects of climate change on plant diseases? May it affect the use of chemicals in agriculture? In these pages you will find an explanation of the possible effects of climate on the interaction among environment, plant and pathogen, which are the key factors in plant disease development.

Key-features

A plant disease is the result of interaction among a susceptible host plant, a virulent pathogen (or more than one) and the environment. Changes in environmental conditions will, therefore, affect the level of diseases

Climate change may directly affect several aspects of the biology of host plants, including their phenology.

1. Climate change will affect plant diseases

A plant disease is the result of interaction between a susceptible host plant, a virulent pathogen(s) and the environment (see the "triangle of the deseases" in the next page). Changes in environmental conditions are strongly associated with differences in the level of losses caused by a disease because the environment significantly (directly or indirectly) influences plants, pathogens and their antagonists. The changes associated with global warming (i.e., increased temperatures, changes in the quantity and pattern of precipitation, increased CO2 and ozone levels, drought, etc.) thus, may affect the incidence and severity of plant disease and influence the further co-evolution of plants and their pathogens (Chakraborty, 2005; Burdon et al., 2006; Garrett et al., 2006; Crowl et al., 2008; Eastburn et al., 2011).

There are already some examples of the effect of past climate changes in some pathosystems.

Changes in the environmental conditions under which plants are grown may affect not only the growth and productivity of these plants but also the populations of microorganisms üving on plant leaf and root surfaces.

Plant-infecting viruses operate in intimate association with their hosts and vectors. Climate change may affect both host plant and insect-vector populations, thereby affecting