Impacts of extreme weather events on pests, damage caused by pests and plant protection measures – first evidence

Abstract

It is likely that climate change will cause an increase in amounts and intensity of extreme weather events.

In this review 111 articles of since 1910 globally published literature concerning the effects of extreme weather events on pests affecting wheat, maize, barley, sugar beet, potato, rape, forage crops and grassland were evaluated to gain information about the damage caused, which was that generalized and conclusions for research and adaption measures were drawn. This leads to first evidence that extreme weather effects resulting from climate change indeed have an effect on important plant pests, the damage they cause and plant protection measures in German agriculture. Their influence on said pests, yield, physiological potential as well as stress tolerance of crop plants can be direct or indirect, restricting or supporting, yet no generalizations can be made just based on this first evidence; more intense research in these areas is required.

In this article urgency and necessity of research and evaluation of these areas, including systematic interdisciplinary research approaches featuring experimental and model-based methods on multiple experiment levels are discussed.

DOI: 10.5073/JfK.2016.09.02, https://doi.org/10.5073/JfK.2016.09.02