Plant Diseases

Plant Disorders and Diseases

A plant disorder is defined as any abnormal plant growth or development. The affected plant does not live up to the normal expectations; it is incapable of carrying out its normal physiological functions to the best of its genetic potential. There are almost an unlimited number of factors that can have a negative affect plants. Disorders can be broken down into two main categories, abiotic diso...

Biological control of plant diseases

Bacteriophages and Bacterial Plant Diseases

Losses in crop yields due to disease need to be reduced in order to meet increasing global food demands associated with growth in the human population. There is a well-recognized need to develop new environmentally friendly control strategies to combat bacterial crop disease. Current control measures involving the use of traditional chemicals or antibiotics are losing their efficacy due to the ...

Arthropod Pests and Plant Diseases

Research has concluded that global warming will likely increase abundance and occurrence of insect pests and plant diseases in agricultural systems. Most of the evidence cited for this increase is based on either empirically derived information, simulation models developed from laboratory observations and/or environmental extremes that resulted in pest outbreaks. While these phenomena can help ...

Landscape epidemiology of plant diseases.

Many agricultural landscapes are characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity and fragmentation. Landscape ecology focuses on the influence of habitat heterogeneity in space and time on ecological processes. Landscape epidemiology aims at applying concepts and approaches originating from landscape ecology to the study of pathogen dynamics at the landscape scale. However, despite the strong i...