Earlier flowering of winter oilseed rape compensates for higher pest pressure in warmer climates

Pest abundance and timing of migration relative to the vulnerable crop stage influence the severity of crop damage and yield loss to insect pests in oilseed rape (OSR). Both abundance and timing are influenced by landscape composition, changes therein due to crop rotation, and temperature. The need for sustainable and temperature-adapted management strategies of OSR pests due to the environmental harm of current conventional practices and global warming calls for a better understanding of the combined effects of landscape composition and temperature on pest abundances, larval parasitism, crop damage and yield, but also of the role of crop phenology for crop damage and yield under field conditions. Here, 29 winter OSR crops were studied along a multi-annual mean temperature gradient (MAT, 1981–2010) in Bavaria, Germany. We measured pest abundances (pollen beetles, stem weevils), crop damage (bud loss, stem tunnelling), pollen beetle larval parasitism and crop yield and calculated Julian ...