Crop-damaging insects, bacteria, fungus and viruses are moving poleward by nearly three kilometers each year, helped by global warming, a study has said.
A team at Britain’s University of Exeter trawled through two huge databases to chart the latitude and dates for the earliest record of 612 crop pests.
Since 1960, these pests have been heading either northward or southward at a rate of around 2.7km yearly.
Photos: Reuters
照片:路透
They move into land that opens up for habitat because of higher temperature and its impact on local weather. The distance is an average figure, as some pests have travelled faster or slower than this.
Over the last half-century, global surface temperatures have risen by an average of 0.12?C per decade.
Countries at higher latitudes have more resources than economies in tropical zones in combating the problem, and regions that previously were too cold for agriculture will also open up to the plough.
Even so, the peril of advancing pests should not be underestimated, as these countries are the planet’s biggest and most productive crop growers, says the paper.
“If crop pests continue to march poleward as the Earth warms, the combined effects of a growing world population and the increased loss of crops to pests will pose a serious threat to global food security,” said one of the authors, Dan Bebber.
(AFP)
一份研究指出,作物害蟲、細菌、真菌與病毒在全球暖化助長下,以每年將近三公里的速度朝南北兩極推進。
英國艾克斯特大學團隊檢視兩個龐大的資料庫,標示出六百一十二種作物害蟲最早紀錄的活動緯度與年代。
自一九六零年以來,這些害蟲以每年約二點七公里的速率,朝南或朝北前進。
由於高溫及其對當地天氣的衝擊,這些害蟲移入可提供棲息的土地。這樣的遷徙距離是平均數據,有些害蟲行進速度較快或較慢。
在過去半世紀,全球地表溫度每十年平均升溫攝氏零點一二度。
緯度較高國家在對抗病蟲害的問題上,要比熱帶地區的經濟體擁有更多資源,而此前因過於寒冷而不利於發展農業的地區,也將廣開成為耕地。
即便如此,該報告指出,害蟲危險性仍不得被低估,因為這些國家是地球最大也是農產最豐者。
作者之一丹.貝博說:「如果作物害蟲隨著地球暖化繼續向極地挺進,全球人口增加與越來越多作物因蟲害而減產的綜合效應,將對全球食物安全造成嚴重威脅。」
(法新社/翻譯:魏國金)
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