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Banana disease boosted by climate change
Black Sigatoka disease emerged from Asia in the late 20th Century and has recently completed its invasion of banana-growing areas in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The new study, by the University of Exeter, says changes to moisture and temperature conditions have increased the risk of Black Sigatoka by more than 44% in these areas since the 1960s.
International trade and increased banana production have also aided the spread of Black Sigatoka, which can reduce the fruit produced by infected plants by up to 80%.
"Black Sigatoka is caused by a fungus (Pseudocercospora fijiensis) whose lifecycle is strongly determined by weather and microclimate," said Dr. Daniel Bebber, of the University of Exeter.
"This research shows that climate change has made temperatures better for spore germination and growth, and made crop canopies wetter, raising the risk of Black Sigatoka infection in many banana-growing areas of Latin America.
"Despite the overall rise in the risk of Black Sigatoka in the areas we examined, drier conditions in some parts of Mexico and Central America have reduced infection risk."
[...] The Pseudocercospora fijiensis fungus spreads via aerial spores, infecting banana leaves and causing streaked lesions and cell death when fungal toxins are exposed to light.
[...] The paper, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, is entitled: "Climate change effects on black sigatoka disease of banana." (DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0269) [invalid doi?]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @07:40AM (1 child)
Temperature has no effect on fungal growth, eh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 07 2019, @02:10PM
Nah,
Just like Globalisation and the shitty 'profit über alles' mantra and practices haven't 'facilitated' the global spread of the spores...oh, they do sort of mention that en passant
Just like over (ab)use of fungicides to try control the thusly spread infection hasn't bred resistant strains of this pesky little group of fuckers...
Ok, so yes, big fucking surprise, you tend to get more fungal spores produced in hotter, wetter conditions (within limits) than in cooler drier ones, Feh!, who knew, eh?, and who the fuck would even begin to dispute that?, so good on them, they've confirmed something we already new but have also quantified the effects of temperature and humidity on the infection rates and crop yields, useful information for the beancounters..
However, by marrying their research on this aspect of the sigatoka clusterfuck to our old friend 'Climate Change' in such a publicity hungry manner, this is, at best, a disingenuous move on their part to 'sex up' their paper, at worst, it gives the scheißkerle responsible for the cause and continued spread of this clusterfuck a get out..
'See folks, the reason your bananas are scarce and have gone up in price is global warming, see, these scientists said so, nothing at all to do with our short-term greedybastarditis in the past..nope...wasn't us....'
(What's that Skip?, a 'resistant' GM Banana has already been developed...fast forward to the day their mystic spreadsheet curves spell maximum profitability.. )
Good news folks! our heroic scientists at Greedicorps™ have been tirelessly working behind the scenes just for you, and have now solved the Banana crises!, or New GM Bananas are disease resistant! of course, they're proprietary, and they'll be just a wee bit more expensive than the ones you're already buying...