Ecological Shifts Under Climate Change: Understanding Pest Responses and Agricultural Vulnerability
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54386/jam.v28i1.3272Keywords:
Agriculture, CO2, Climate action, Environment, Food security, Insects.Abstract
Climate change profoundly affects agricultural insect pests by altering their biology, distribution, and interactions within agroecosystems, threatening global food security. Rising temperatures, elevated atmospheric CO₂, and shifting precipitation patterns accelerate pest development, expand geographic ranges, and increase voltinism, intensifying crop damage. These shifts disrupt traditional pest management frameworks, as phenological mismatches among pests, host plants, and natural enemies weaken biological control. Moreover, abiotic stresses compromise the performance of biocontrol agents, such as entomopathogenic fungi, necessitating climate-specific strain selection. Adaptive integrated pest management (IPM) strategies that incorporate real-time monitoring, predictive modeling, precision agriculture technologies, and emerging tools such as CRISPR and sterile insect techniques are essential for climate-resilient agriculture. Sustainable approaches that leverage natural products and minimize reliance on chemical pesticides further support ecosystem health. This review synthesizes current knowledge on climate-driven pest dynamics, range expansions, and tritrophic disruptions based on literature searched in Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar from January 2000 to November 2025 using Boolean strings. This review proposes a comprehensive climate-adaptive IPM framework to safeguard agricultural productivity amid ongoing environmental change.
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