Overview on the review articles published during the past 30 years relating to the potential climate change effects on plant pathogens and crop disease risks

Abstract

From 1988 to July 2019 more than 100 review articles were published, including opinion papers and book chapters, that focused on potential climate change effects on plant pathogens and the future crop disease risks. Therefore, an overview of them is presented herein, particularly helpful for beginners and non-experts in climate change biology research. Specifically, this overview contributes to a faster and more convenient identification of appropriate review articles, for example, related to a certain crop, pathogen, plant disease or country of interest. However, not all important crops, pathogens, diseases and countries are considered specifically and in-depth in any of these review articles, suggesting that there are still research gaps prevalent, which are also highlighted herein. Nevertheless, the overview suggests that researchers are increasingly busy and successful in summarizing the fragmented information spread throughout the international literature. Consequently, they are providing ‘step-by-step’ a comprehensive, in-depth, and continuously updated knowledge platform on potential climate change effects on plant pathogens and the respective crop disease risks in the future, although some aspects will, by nature, be repeated.