Can climate change influence olive pests and diseases?

Climate change will make the Mediterranean Basin vulnerable to desertification, and this will affect many species such as olive in largely unknown ways. Olive is the base of a tri-trophic food web that includes pest, disease and their natural enemy species, each of which will be affected differently by climate change. The effects of extant weather and climate change scenarios on the tri-trophic interactions can be examined using biologically-rich physiologically-based demographic models developed from field and laboratory data. Studies from Sardinia, Italy and California show how the same model can be applied to these areas, and by inference, to other areas of the Mediterranean basin and elsewhere globally. Specifically, the model enables the examination of climate change on the range of olive and olive fly. The effect of climate change on natural enemies are illustrated using the olive scale/parasitoid interactions. The same system can also be used to examine the distribution and abundance of diseases. No model is complete, and required improvements can serve as a basis for interdisciplinary regional IPM research.


Gutierrez A.P., Ponti, L., 2009. Can climate change have an influence on the occurrence and management of olive pests and diseases? 4th European Meeting of the IOBC/WPRS Working Group “Integrated Protection of Olive Crops”, Córdoba, Spain, 1-4 June 2009. (Keynote address)

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