Main grain-producing areas of Canada and the U.S. could see rapid increases in crop-damaging insects as global temperatures rise, according to researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Colorado, Boulder.
A new study reveals temperature increases are likely to spark population growths in grasshoppers, caterpillars and other insects that devour crops in temperate regions.
The researchers found that a rise in temperature may speed insect metabolism and boost their appetites and reproduction rates. Those metabolic and reproductive rates levelled off in models where temperatures reached that of the tropics, so those regions are likely to be less affected.
The study had drawn some criticism for failing to account for the increase in predators that consume the harmful insects, but it illustrates the need protect food security.
The study called “Increase in crop losses to insect pests in a warming climate” suggests that overall yields will decrease as growing-season temperatures rise. Wheat, rice and corn yield losses to insects may increase by 10-to-25 per cent for every degree Celsius of warming, it said.
