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Publicação
Climate Change Can Generate Enemy-Free Space for Crop-Feeding Herbivores
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Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
ABSTARCT: Crop-feeding herbivores reduce the world's food output by approximately 20% and climate change (CC) is bound to deepen those losses. Endemic or introduced consumer organisms (i.e., biological control agents) naturally regulate herbivore populations and secure a quarter of crop yields, but are exceptionally susceptible to CC-related disturbances. Here, we use niche modeling for 14 globally-important herbivores (or pests) to forecast how richness of the associated biological control agents of each pest—as a proxy of service strength—may alter under a CC-driven range expansion. Results show that 57%–100% of pests are bound to lose parasitoid and predator associates. The cassava mealybug Phenacoccus manihoti may experience a 27% decline in parasitoid pressure, whereas cosmopolitan pests of cereal and horticultural crops benefit from 6% to 7% drops in predator pressure. Such ‘enemy release’ can possibly exacerbate pest-induced yield losses and threaten future harvests. Ant-pest associations change in both directions, implying that pests may either face strengthened or weakened biological control. For pests spreading towards or within food-deficit regions in the equatorial belt, parasitoid declines and increases in ant pressure are most pronounced. By exposing the fragility of biodiversity-based ecological safeguards in farmland, our work calls for urgent, integrative, and nature-friendly solutions to uphold food security under environmental change.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
agroecology biodiversity conservation biotic resistance climate change ecological intensification functional ecology insect decline sustainable agriculture
Contexto Educativo
Citação
Wyckhuys, K. A., Pozsgai, G., Finch, E. A., Seehausen, M. L., Zhang, W., & Gc, Y. D. (2026). Climate change can generate enemy‐free space for crop‐feeding herbivores. Global Change Biology, 32(3), e70775.
Editora
Wiley