Shift in the Manifestations of Insect Pests Under Predicted Climatic Change Scenarios: Key Challenges and Adaptation Strategies

Abstract

Climate change is now a scientifically proved, well-established and globally accepted fact. The impacts of climate change have already been observed frequently at many places in the form of rise in atmospheric CO2 levels, increased temperatures, changing hydrological cycles and frequent occurrence of extreme weather events. The biotic communities may respond to these changes in a variety of ways. The diversity and abundance of insect pests in agroecosystems are very likely to be affected negatively under abiotically stressful environment in changing climate. Vast majority of studies have documented these effects on inhabitant biota, e.g. shift in range of geographical distributions and abundance, changes in phenology and species interactions, etc. Majority of the studies dealing with the impact of climate change on crop-insect pest interactions revealed the predominance of negative impacts of climate change on crop yields over the positive impacts. This may affect seriously the agricultural production and the livelihood of farming communities. This situation is expected to be more pronounced in tropical and subtropical countries of the world where larger proportion of work force is directly depending on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, livestock and forestry. This article highlights the major changes in manifestations of insect pests of agricultural crops and their damaging activities in the context of predicted climatic changes. Besides, discussions were also added on planning and development of adaptive strategies and robust technologies that will be effective in management of the new and emerging pest problems in agroecosystems of future.