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. 2020 Nov 24;18(11):e3000949.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000949. eCollection 2020 Nov.

Climate change and disease in plant communities

Jeremy J Burdon  1 , Jiasui Zhan  2
Affiliations

Climate change and disease in plant communities

Jeremy J Burdon et al. PLoS Biol. .

Abstract

Climate change is triggering similar effects on the incidence and severity of disease for crops in agriculture and wild plants in natural communities. The complexity of natural ecosystems, however, generates a complex array of interactions between wild plants and pathogens in marked contrast to those generated in the structural and species simplicity of most agricultural crops. Understanding the different impacts of climate change on agricultural and natural ecosystems requires accounting for the specific interactions between an individual pathogen and its host(s) and their subsequent effects on the interplay between the host and other species in the community. Ultimately, progress will require looking past short-term fluctuations to multiyear trends to understand the nature and extent of plant and pathogen evolutionary adaptation and determine the fate of plants under future climate change.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Cartoon showing ways in which climate change may affect wild plant community structure as increased or decreases in disease or invasion of novel pathogens leads to either positive or negative changes in host fitness.
In turn, these changes may trigger a cascade of changes between host and nonhost species with consequential changes in community structure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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