Museum specimen data reveal emergence of a plant disease may be linked to increases in the insect vector population

The emergence rate of new plant diseases is increasing due to novel introductions, climate change, and changes in vector populations, posing risks to agricultural sustainability. Assessing and managing future disease risks depends on understanding the causes of contemporary and historical emergence events. Since the mid-1990s, potato growers in the western United States, Mexico, and Central America have experienced severe yield loss from Zebra Chip disease and have responded by increasing insecticide use to suppress populations of the insect vector, the potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli (Hemiptera: Triozidae). Despite the severe nature of Zebra Chip outbreaks, the causes of emergence remain unknown. We tested the hypotheses that 1) B. cockerelli occupancy has increased over the last century in California and 2) such increases are related to climate change, specifically warmer winters. We compiled a dataset of 87,000 museum specimen occurrence records across the order Hemiptera coll...

受新型病害传入、气候变化以及媒介种群变迁的影响，新型植物病害的暴发率持续攀升，对农业可持续性构成严峻威胁。对未来病害风险的评估与管控，有赖于厘清当代与历史病害暴发事件的成因。自20世纪90年代中期以来，美国西部、墨西哥及中美洲的马铃薯种植户屡屡遭受斑马片病（Zebra Chip disease）引发的严重减产，为此他们不得不加大杀虫剂施用剂量，以抑制其媒介昆虫——马铃薯木虱（Bactericera cockerelli，半翅目：Triozidae）的种群规模。尽管斑马片病暴发危害惨重，但其暴发成因迄今仍不明朗。本研究验证了两项假说：其一，加利福尼亚州内马铃薯木虱的发生范围与种群占比在过去一个世纪中有所扩张；其二，这类种群扩张与气候变化密切相关，具体表现为冬季气温升高。我们汇编了涵盖半翅目（Hemiptera）各分类类群的87000份博物馆标本发生记录数据集，相关整理工作……