Abstract
Massive desert locust swarms have been threatening and devouring natural vegetation and agricultural crops in East Africa and West Asia since 2019, and the event developed into a rare and globally concerning locust upsurge in early 2020. The breeding, maturation, concentration and migration of locusts rely on appropriate environmental factors, mainly precipitation, temperature, vegetation coverage and land-surface soil moisture. Remotely sensed images and long-term meteorological observations across the desert locust invasion area were analyzed to explore the complex drivers, vegetation losses and growing trends during the locust upsurge in this study. The results revealed that (1) the intense precipitation events in the Arabian Peninsula during 2018 provided suitable soil moisture and lush vegetation, thus promoting locust breeding, multiplication and gregarization; (2) the regions affected by the heavy rainfall in 2019 shifted from the Arabian Peninsula to West Asia and Northeast Africa, thus driving the vast locust swarms migrating into those regions and causing enormous vegetation loss; (3) the soil moisture and NDVI anomalies corresponded well with the locust swarm movements; and (4) there was a low chance the eastwardly migrating locust swarms would fly into the Indochina Peninsula and Southwest China.
Highlights
The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) has been among the most devastating and notable pests that threaten local food security in Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia since the beginning of recorded history [1]
The results showed that a sequence of higher-than-normal precipitarecent desert locust upsurge
The results showed that a sequence of higher-than-normal precipitation, air temperature and soil moisture during 2018-2020 provided a favorable environment for a number of successive generations of desert locust breeding that led to the observed locust upsurge in East Africa and West Asia in early 2020
Summary
The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) has been among the most devastating and notable pests that threaten local food security in Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia since the beginning of recorded history [1]. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has played an important role in monitoring the timing, scale and location of invasions and breeding through its global Desert Locust Information. The locust upsurge in early 2020 has been recognized as the worst infestation in several decades for some East Africa and West Asia countries, such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Pakistan, and the hectares of damaged forests and farmlands are still increasing [4].
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