Impacts of global change on diseases of agricultural crops and forest trees

The fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects rising levels of greenhouse gas and global temperature. The well-known dependence of plant diseases on weather has long been exploited for predicting epidemics and to time applications of control measures for tactical disease management. Fingerprints of inter-annual climatic variation on pathogens have recently been shown in literature linking pathogen abundance to atmospheric composition. Past reviews have dealt with impacts of changing atmospheric composition and climate on diseases, regional or country-wide assessments of climate change impacts and impacts on specific disease/pathogen or pathogen groups. All agree on paucity of knowledge prompting a need to generate new empirical data on host-pathogen biology under a changing climate. Focused on experimental research, the purpose of this review is to summarize published and unpublished studies on plant pathogens and diseases in free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) facilities and open top chambers and other current non-FACE research to offer a summary of future research needs and opportunities. Critical review of recent literature on the influence of elevated CO2 and O3 on agriculture and forestry species forms a major part of the treatise. Summaries of unpublished or ongoing experimental research on plant pathogens from FACE studies are included as a catalogue of work in this neglected area. The catalogue and knowledge gaps are intended as a resource for workers initiating research in this area as well as the general scientific community grappling with the design and scope of next generation of FACE facilities. © CAB International 2008