Are plant diseases too much ignored in the climate change debate?

Piet M Boonekamp

doi:10.1007/s10658-011-9934-8

Abstract

Ignoring plant diseases misinforms the climate change and food security debate. Diseases are expected not only to cause more severe crop loss in many areas in the world and threaten food security, but also to decrease the climate change mitigation capacity of forests, of other natural ecosystems and of producing crops. However, if research, policy and industry join forces to obtain the multidisciplinary knowledge necessary to adapt integrated pest management (IPM) to the changing climate, it is expected that sufficiently resilient cropping systems can be developed in time. This was the main conclusion of the International Conference on Climate Change and Plant Disease Management held in Evora, Portugal, in November 2010.

Highlights

Ignoring plant diseases misinforms the climate change and food security debate
Climate change will definitively affect the distribution and severity of pests and diseases in crops and forests, but whether such changes will cause more devastating plant disease epidemics, has received little attention in the current scientific debate on climate change. This lack of attention prompted the European Foundation of Plant Pathology, (EFPP), the Royal Netherlands Society of Plant Pathology (KNPV), the American Phytopathological Society (APS), and the Portuguese Phytopathological Society (SPF), to organize a conference focused on plant diseases, as they are even more ignored than plant pests
& What is the role of plant disease control on mitigation of climate change effects by greenhouse gases?

Summary

Does disease control help to mitigate climate change?

The question about the impact of plant disease control on mitigation has barely been raised in climate change debates. The recent large-scale outbreaks of the disease which have defoliated large areas of forests in a short period, could be ascribed to recent climate change effects (higher temperatures and humidity) over the last years in this area (Woods 2011). Both studies clearly show that plant diseases pose a serious risk in terms of decreasing the mitigating capacity of cultivated land and of forests

What climate change adaptation do we need to control diseases?

Findings

What can be expected from research?