Abstract. Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of many countries economy worldwide and it is highly dependent on the climate. Along with climate impact a range of regional and global political and economic factors intensify food insecurity and long term vulnerability in certain regions. Despite the findings suggesting that increases in carbon dioxide level (CO2) and temperatures can increase plant growth, the changes in global temperatures, frequency and intensity of droughts, extreme rain and snow falls, flooding and heat waves have already started to have significant impact on crop yields and concerning about future food security. The impact of climate change also need to be considered along with other factors that affect crop yields, such as specific biotic constrainers (pathogens) and its impact on the host-pathogen relationship. Moreover extreme temperatures and precipitation have been associated with changes in pathogens life cycles, increased incidence, pathogenicity, genetically recombination and aggressiveness traits, which involves the urge to rethink the integrated management strategies. Although, many previous studies have emphasized the sensitivity of plants to various biotic constrainers, the host-pathogen interactions are poorly understood in the context of climatic change. Therefore, it is a particular interest for those wheat pathogens that might affect yield dramatically with potentially serious implications for food security. The present review is focused on the impact of climate change on wheat diseases and host pathogen interactions taking into consideration case studies in order to understand better how the components of disease cycle are affected and to identify disease risk and prevent potential food security crisis. The response of pathosystems to climate change is of high interest currently in order to estimate disease risk on a large scale and to introduce new understandings in developing management strategies. However, further investigation need to be done in order to highlight how improving plant diseases management can enhance global food security in a changing climate.

Key words: climate change, extreme events, food security, host-pathogen interactions, plant disease, wheat

biology

Presentation: poster