The global spread of crop pests and pathogens

Abstract Aim To describe the patterns and trends in the spread of crop pests and pathogens around the world, and determine the socioeconomic, environmental and biological factors underlying the rate and degree of redistribution of crop‐destroying organisms. Location Global. Methods Current country‐ and state‐level distributions of 1901 pests and pathogens and historical observation dates for 424 species were compared with potential distributions based upon distributions of host crops. The degree of ‘saturation’, i.e. the fraction of the potential distribution occupied, was related to pest type, host range, crop production, climate and socioeconomic variables using linear models. Results More than one‐tenth of…

• UO
  University of Exeter
• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

  Awards: BB/J008923/1, BB/J00923/2, BB/J008923/2, BB/E00282X/1, BBS/E/C/00005194