Climate Change: Impact on Plant Pathogens, Diseases, and Their Management

Abstract

Climate change is predicted to cause adverse effects on global agricultural production by influencing spatial and temporal disease epidemics. The increase in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels causes physiological changes in plants that result in increase in intensity of crop diseases. Warming may cause shifts in agroclimatic zones in which host plants migrate into new areas resulting in the emergence of new disease complexes. The global disease scenario will be impacted by climate change as it can alter pathogen development, cause changes in host-pathogen interactions, and facilitate the emergence of new races of pathogens, which in turn break down host-plant resistance. In this chapter, we review the impact of climate change on different plant pathogens such as fungi, bacteria and viruses, development of new races of pathogens, deployment of R genes, occurrence of host-plant resistance and pathogen aggressiveness. We also review the probable strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on plant disease management practices to address future food security goals.