Climate Change and Biological Control of Pests in Agriculture

Abstract

There is scientific evidence on the impact of climate changes in the agriculture, especially on how these changes affect the phenology, distribution, diversity, and composition of the species in plant, bird, mammal, and insect communities in ecosystems. Regarding the biological control of pests, in general, the temperature increase is expected to rebound negatively, because pests are highly dependent on, and susceptible to environmental changes. This chapter aims at approaching the importance of climate change for the biological control of agricultural pests, as a contribution to understanding factors related with its handling before to exposure to extreme events. In this chapter, aspects related to biological control are analyzed in agricultural territories exposed to extreme events, namely, tolerance, interactions, and resilience capacity. The appropriate climate for the massive multiplication of biological control agents has been relatively studied; however, the effects of climate changes, such as temperature increase, periods of drought, tropical hurricanes, defrosting, and other extreme events, are scarcely documented.