MappestRisk: an R package for modelling and mapping risk of crop pest development based on their thermal biology

Infected areas and damage levels due to pest and disease have been growing seriously according to the global climate changes. The government department of plant protection normally collects the crop pest and disease information by manual inspection, which is unable to provide timely and spatially continuous crop growth status and pest/ disease development over large areas. The manuscript aims to bring together and produce cutting edge research to provide crop pest and disease monitoring and forecasting information, integrating multi-source (Earth Observation-EO, meteorological, entomological and plant pathological, etc.) to support decision making in sustainable management of pest and disease. Taking national disease –a fungal disease of wheat rust and national pest – a serious insect pest locust as the experimental object, we conducted the following research: 1) the sensitive spectral features of rust and locust with capability of stresses differentiation would be identified or formed based on field hyperspectral data and UAV hyperspectral images for detection, 2) multi-sources of data that are composed by remote sensing images (eg. GF, Landsat and Sentinel) and meteorological observations would be integrated to evaluating habitat of rust and locust in farmland level, 3) multi-temporal remote sensing images and vegetation ecological dataset are combined to provide environmental information of rust and locust dispersion, and forecast the damaged areas and levels in regional scales. Moreover, an automatic system is developed to do the disease and pest timeseries monitoring and forecasting, also the visual display of the thematic maps and analysis reports. The system is constructed based on WebGIS platform. It selected Browser/Server (B/S) architecture, access the system interface through a web browser, simple, quick and easy to operate. And, it could timely, efficiently, quantitatively do the extraction and analysis of crop pest and disease occurrence and developing information, also produce pest and disease thematic maps and scientific report. The crop pest and disease monitoring and forecasting system, can provide effective information of pest and disease developing for our agricultural sector, provide a scientific basis to formulate pest and disease prevention and control measures, and also provide data basis and technical support for the crop network management. Based on the system, we analysed the damaged situation and changes of national wheat rust in 2019, and locust in Tianjing 2019. The results would not only promote efficacy of pest and disease management and prevention by improving the accuracy of monitoring and forecasting, but also help to reduce the amount of chemical pesticides, which could thus guarantee the food security and sustainable development of agriculture in China.

Nanotechnology is a promising field of interdisciplinary research. It opens up a wide array of opportunities in various fields like insecticides, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and agriculture. Biosynthesis of insecticides from plant extracts is currently under exploration. Plant extracts are very cost-effective and eco-friendly and thus can be an economic and efficient alternative for the large-scale synthesis of synthetic and other chemical insecticides. The present review was carried out to establish the management of insect pests using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Cassia occidentalis against different life stages of crop and human pests. Synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Characteristics of the synthesized AgNPs were confirmed by analyzing the excitation of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) using a UV–vis spectrophotometer at 420 nm. SEM analysis of the synthesized AgNPs clearly showed clustered and irregular shapes, mostly aggregated and having a size of 20–85 nm. The chemical composition of elements present in the solution was determined by its energy-dispersive spectrum. The FTIR analysis of the nanoparticles indicated the presence of proteins, which may be acting as capping agents around the nanoparticles. Biosynthesis of nanoparticles may be triggered by several compounds such as carbonyl groups, terpenoids, phenolics, flavones, amines, amides, proteins, pigments, alkaloids, and other reducing agents present in the biological extracts. Overall, this study adds knowledge on C. occidentalis-borne insecticides and green-synthesized AgNP toxic against arthropods of medical and agricultural importance, allowing us to propose the tested products as effective candidates to develop newer and safer pest control tools.

Aims : This study aims to synthesize evidence on the impact of climate change on the major pests and diseases of wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) and maize ( Zea mays ) to support evidence-based decision making and policy development for adaptive pest management. Review methodology : A systematic literature review was conducted across multiple academic databases (Web of Science, Scopus, CAB Abstracts, Google Scholar) and authoritative institutional reports (FAO, IPCC). Relevant English-language peer-reviewed studies were identified using keyword combinations (e.g., “climate change” OR “global warming” AND “crop pests” OR “pest outbreaks”) and subjected to two-stage screening (title/abstract and full-text) based on predefined eligibility criteria such as theme relevance, study type, methodological rigor and geographic scope. Data capturing the context of the study (e.g., geographic location, environmental context), impacts (e.g., indicators of biology, distribution, migration), and management practices are compiled from those studies that meet the predetermined criteria. Mechanisms to minimize publication bias and maintain consistency by using standardized tools, calibration and training, and documentation and audit trail, are applied throughout the review process. Main findings : Wheat’s key pests/diseases include leaf rust, barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), while maize’s major threats are ear rots, European corn borer, and Fall Armyworm. Climate change exacerbates these pests/diseases by expanding geographic ranges, accelerating life cycles, increasing overwintering survival, and amplifying extreme weather impacts. For each degree of global mean surface warming, global yield losses of wheat and maize due to pests/diseases are projected to increase by 10–25%, with temperate regions facing the most acute losses (wheat > maize). Traditional pest control techniques are challenged by reduced host resistance, increased pesticide resistance, and disrupted prey-predator synchronization. Principal conclusions : Climate change-driven pest/disease intensification threatens global food security, particularly for wheat and maize. To enhance resilience, traditional pest management measures must be revitalized and integrated with innovative technologies and adaptive strategies (e.g., resistant cultivar breeding, climate-smart integrated pest management).

<List> <ListItem><ItemContent><p>● Crop pests are a major factor restricting agricultural production in China.</p></ItemContent></ListItem> <ListItem><ItemContent><p>● The National Monitoring and Early Warning System (NMEWS) was established > 40 years ago.</p></ItemContent></ListItem> <ListItem><ItemContent><p>● Application of NMEWS has increased national capability to tackle pests.</p></ItemContent></ListItem></List></p> <p>The importance of food security, especially in combating the problem of acute hunger, has been underscored as a key component of sustainable development. Considering the major challenge of rapidly increasing demands for both food security and safety, the management and control of major pests is urged to secure supplies of major agricultural products. However, owing to global climate change, biological invasion (e.g., fall armyworm), decreasing agricultural biodiversity, and other factors, a wide range of crop pest outbreaks are becoming more frequent and serious, making China, one of the world’s largest country in terms of agricultural production, one of the primary victims of crop yield loss and the largest pesticide consumer in the world. Nevertheless, the use of science and technology in monitoring and early warning of major crop pests provides better pest management and acts as a fundamental part of an integrated plant protection strategy to achieve the goal of sustainable development of agriculture. This review summarizes the most fundamental information on pest monitoring and early warning in China by documenting the developmental history of research and application, Chinese laws and regulations related to plant protection, and the National Monitoring and Early Warning System, with the purpose of presenting the Chinese model as an example of how to promote regional management of crop pests, especially of cross border pests such as fall armyworm and locust, by international cooperation across pest-related countries.

Integrated pest management (IPM) has remained the dominant paradigm of pest control for the last 50 years. IPM has been endorsed by essentially all the multilateral environmental agreements that have transformed the global policy framework of natural resource management, agriculture, and trade. The integration of a number of different control tactics into IPM systems can be done in ways that greatly facilitate the achievement of the goals either of field-by-field pest management, or of area-wide (AW) pest management, which is the management of the total pest population within a delimited area. For several decades IPM and AW pest control have been seen as competing paradigms with different objectives and approaches. Yet, the two “schools” have gradually converged, and it is now generally acknowledged that the synthesis, AW-IPM, neither targets only eradication, nor relies only on single control tactics, and that many successful AW programmes combine a centrally managed top-down approach with a strong grassroots bottom-up approach, and that some are managed in a fully bottom-up manner. AW-IPM is increasingly accepted especially for mobile pests where management at a larger scale is more effective and preferable to the uncoordinated field-by-field approach. For some livestock pests, vectors of human diseases, and pests of crops with a high economic value and low pest tolerance, there are compelling economic incentives for participating in AW control. Nevertheless issues of free riders, public participation and financing of public goods, all play a significant role in AW-IPM implementation. These social and managerial issues have, in several cases, severely hampered the positive outcome of AW programmes; and this emphasises the need for attention not only to ecological, environmental, and economic aspects, but also to the social and management dimensions. Because globalization of trade and tourism are accompanied by the increased movement of invasive alien pest species, AW programmes against major agricultural pests are often being conducted in urban and suburban areas. Especially in such circumstances, factors likely to shift attitudes from apathy to outrage, need to be identified in the programme planning stage and mitigated. This paper reviews the evolution and implementation of the AW-IPM concept and documents its process of development from basic research, through methods development, feasibility studies, commercialization and regulation, to pilot studies and operational programmes.

This chapter provides an overview on the biology of different pests of crops (including mites, insects, pathogens and weeds) as well as the different methods used to control them (including biological, cultural and physical control, host plant resistance, decision support tools, and integrated pest management).

BackgroundHumans are looking for innovative options to combat major problematic biotic hurdles like crop pests (insect pests and diseases) in agriculture. Synthetic pesticides are widely employed to control pests and diseases, which leads to several issues, including pest resistance, eradication of natural enemies, contamination of the environment, biodiversity loss and health risks to humans. This review will shed light on future alternatives for crop pest management.Mani bodyNanotechnology is one of the most innovative and promising alternatives for crop pest management to handle problems associated with chemical pesticides by converting the active element to nanoparticles (NPs). Because of the bigger surface area, NPs guarantee that a greater volume comes into touch with the surfaces. According to numerous research findings, nanopesticide formulations derived from NPs successfully manage crop pests and other biotic stress. They offer a long-term controlled release of the pesticide molecules, which are more environmentally friendly, selective, and target specific. Additionally, the quantity of nanopesticides needed to control insects is smaller, which lowers the chemical burden on the environment.ConclusionAs an alternative to chemical molecules, nanopesticides act as a very important tool for managing insect pests and diseases. Technologies such as smart pest monitoring, precision delivery, nano-RNAi and target release nanopesticides create new avenues for pest surveillance and management. Therefore, adopting nanotechnology to develop nanopesticides and nanotools for crop pest management is thought to be the finest method in green farming for sustainable agriculture and the environment. So this article focuses more on the innovation in nanotechnology for crop pest management.Graphical abstract

Biocontrol agents can help reduce pest populations as part of an integrated pest management scheme, with minimal environmental consequences. However, biocontrol agents are often non-native species and require significant infrastructure; overuse of single agents results in pest resistance. Native biocontrol agents are urgently required for more sustainable multi-faceted approaches to pest management. Social wasps are natural predators of lepidopteran pests, yet their viability as native biocontrol agents is largely unknown. Here, we provide evidence that the social paper wasp Polistes satan is a successful predator on the larvae of two economically important and resilient crop pests, the sugarcane borer Diatraea saccharalis (on sugarcane Saccharum spp.) and the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (on maize Zea mays); P. satan wasps significantly reduce crop pest damage. These results provide the much-needed baseline experimental evidence that social wasps have untapped potential as native biocontrol agents for sustainable crop production and food security.

Environmental factors that interact with increasing temperature under the ongoing global warming are an urgent issue determining marine phytoplankton’s performance. Previous studies showed that nutrient limitation alters phytoplankton responses to temperature and may lower their temperature optima (Topt), making them more susceptible to high temperatures. The generality of this relationship is unknown, as very few species were tested. Here we investigated how growth rate depended on temperature at two contrasting nitrogen concentrations in six marine diatoms isolated from different thermal environments, including the tropics. Low nitrate had a significant effect on thermal performance in five of the six species. The effect size was larger around the optimum temperature for growth, resulting in flattened thermal performance curves but no shift in Topt. While that trend is independent of the thermal regime from which each species was isolated, the implications for the phytoplankton response to global warming may be region dependent.

AimIn recent decades, a surge in the number of significant and uncontrolled wildfires has occurred worldwide. Global warming may amplify this trend and threaten most ecosystems worldwide. Deciduous forests are characterized by high plant diversity, and understanding their long‐term dynamics is crucial to anticipate changes in these ecosystems during ongoing global warming. The aim of this study is to understand how European beech forests have colonized the inner Eastern Carpathians and how changes in fire regime and human activities have affected their biodiversity.LocationInner Eastern Carpathian Mountains, Slovakia.TaxonPlantae, gymnosperms, angiosperms.MethodsPeat core was extracted from the centre of Ďurova mláka mire in 2018. A multi‐proxy approach has been applied to investigate the development of beech forest. Charcoal analysis has been done each centimetre to reconstruct the fire signal. Pollen analysis has been done at 2 cm resolution to reconstruct the vegetation composition and dynamics, and the variation in palynological richness (PRI), evenness and turnover has been analysed. Macro‐remains analysis has been performed at 10 cm resolution to add more information about the local vegetation.ResultsLow diversity spruce forest was dominant until 5200 cal. BP during a fire‐prone period due to specific climatic conditions (drier climate than the following period). The higher fire frequency and intensity following this period is simultaneous with the first expansion of Fagus which indicate that Fagus could occupy post‐fire habitats, at least at the local scale. However, its dominance coincided with major gaps in fire events from 3900 cal. BP. The PRI has increased during the transition from spruce to beech forest highlighting the importance of beech forests in maintaining plant biodiversity. However, the stronger increase in the richness is synchronous with the increase in human activities around 2000 cal. BP, and then 350 cal. BP.Main ConclusionsClimate‐driven fire frequency has been a natural driver of vegetation changes in the Carpathians by promoting the emergence of high diversified beech forest. These changes were significantly modified by later increase in human activities.

Ongoing global warming is decreasing the thickness of snow covers and increasing initial soil moisture content (SMC), which increase the number of freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) at mid-high latitudes and high elevations, especially at temperate regions. FTCs substantially affect the stability of soil aggregates, which may increase soil erosion. A comprehensive understanding of aggregate stability under different types of vegetation restoration in response to FTCs, however, has not yet been attained. We evaluated the effects of number of FTCs (0, 1, 3, and 9) and initial SMC (40, 60, and 80% field capacity) on aggregate distribution and stability in cropland, natural grassland, and Chinese pine forestland, the three typical types of vegetation on the Loess Plateau in China. The experiment was conducted under simulated conditions in the laboratory using disturbed soil samples. Most aggregate-size fractions and mean weight diameters (MWDs) were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by FTCs, initial SMC, and vegetation types. FTCs significantly decreased MWD by 3.6–18.1% through disrupting larger macro-aggregates, which increased with SMC. Increased SMC increased MWD by 2.0–53.0% through binding soil particles, the effect of which was much larger than the disruptive effects under the freeze-thaw conditions, especially at high SMC. MWD was in the order of cropland < Chinese pine forestland < natural grassland under each freeze-thaw condition. The results indicated that natural vegetation succession was better than Chinese pine forest plantation for resisting seasonal FTCs and that aggregate stability may increase due to increased initial SMC under scenarios of future global warming.

Analyzed that the Scientists and Geographers have provided scientific and meteorological evidence of patterns of alter into climatic circumstances of the globe with the resulting conclusion that the global warming is quickly happening &amp; the on-going global warming is anthropogenic into the nature since people continue to extremely burn that fossil fuel as Oil &amp; Gas; Coal &amp; fuel wood. In this paper has to recognize how obtained to that point of forthcoming catastrophe, how susceptible Indians have, particularly those who live into the environmentally deprived regions. The consequence of this alters over the socio-economic growth of people will too investigated whereas adaptation developmental practices that can be adopted into the order to alleviate impending disaster will be proffered. The study made exercise of both primary &amp; secondary data on result of the climate change phenomenon &amp; relevant already published data on nature &amp; consequence of climate change into the India. Now a day’s problem of environment degradation is increasing so there is need to control over it. Explained that the magistrates has opined that the right of human beings over ecological safeguard over countenances of similar coin. During the modern India, ecological Jurisprudence is plays pivotal role to safeguard of environment from degradation. The damage reasoned towards the environment by the poisonous gases &amp; secretions, industrial sewages, plastic squander, misuse of natural resources such as forests, soil, water supplemented through other equally significant factors such as population explosion, poverty, health danger, disintegration into quality of existence have gained disturbing measurement that cry to novel ecological ethic command &amp; justice into the Indian

For years East Kalimantan has been one area that suffers from large deforestations. This condition worsens the ongoing global warming on earth. Based on critical documentary analysis, this article explains the conditions of East Kalimantan forest under different global and national political conditions. This article proposes social awareness raising among different stakeholders on environment using religious (Islamic) scholarly perspectives as one of many solutions to overcome further forest and environmental destruction. Keywords: Islamic Perspective, deforestation, East Kalimantan, and Global Warming

Ongoing global warming and water regime disturbances have a major impact on the natural environment. Algae phytoremediation is one option to monitor environmental changes at an elemental level. In this study, we monitored heavy metals and other elements accumulated by the genus Oscillatoriales. This research was conducted at two sites in the foothills of the High Tatras between 2020 and 2023. Annual differences showed the impact of drought and lack of rainfall on the accumulation of elements in cyanobacteria. The results show how global warming affects the movement of heavy metals and other elements in the natural environment. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) showed very dry to extremely dry weather in 2022. The drought in 2022 induced a decrease in the concentration of Ti, Cr, Mn, Zn, Rb, Zr, Ba, and Pb due to low rock weathering and sediment distortion. The decrease in heavy metals, particularly Zn, resulted in an increase in S concentration due to increased biological activity. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed, in the first component, discharge depended on the accumulation of many elements. The third component of the PCA described the accumulation of S and K in an increased way during the same year, suggesting increased biological activity.

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Rock glaciers are typically regarded as periglacial features and their dynamics are supposed to be driven by ice content. Under ongoing global warming we expect these structures and dynamics to change and at least decay. This would be especially the case of rock glaciers in climate-sensitive high mountains of the Tibetan plateau, like in the Nyainq&amp;amp;#234;ntanglha range. Despite the similar past and present periglacial climatic conditions in this region, rock glaciers are only formed in a few, specific valleys. With this study, we aim to provide insights into the environmental conditions under which rock glaciers are formed and maintained, to be able to better understand how they will respond to changing boundary conditions, imposed by global warming.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;To assess &amp;amp;#8220;what makes a rock glacier?&amp;amp;#8221; we studied such a feature in the Qugaqie basin, at 5500&amp;amp;#160;m&amp;amp;#160;a.s.l. To describe the structure and the dynamics of this active rock glacier we applied several methods (geomorphological mapping, geophysics, remote sensing) and we incorporated catchment area properties such as geology, water and sediment sources. Mapping of the geomorphology, the geology and surface material properties characterizes the external structure of the rock glacier. The internal structure, like the active layer zone and the existence of ice, is described by electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). To investigate the surface dynamics of the rock glaciers, we quantify displacement rates using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) time-series analysis. To gain insight to internal deformation dynamics we use environmental seismology, allowing for detection and location of crack signals within the rock glacier. The seismic network also allows tracking rock falls at the head scarp and continuously monitoring glaciofluvial patterns. We find that the singularity of the presence of the studied rock glacier is most likely related to a specific melange of the geological structures, former glaciation of the valley, catchment size and shape and especially water availability.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;