Editorial: Crop resistance mechanisms to alleviate climate change-related stress

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities have aggravated the effects of global climate change on ecosystems (IPCC, 2018). Plants are sessile organisms unable to escape from an adverse environment and for this reason they suffer to a great extent from stresses, which can negatively impact their growth and development (Aroca, 2012; Gull et al., 2019). Global warming is increasingly causing extreme climatic situations such as very high or low temperatures, drought and flooding events, hailstorms, wildfires, extreme precipitation events, and the reduction of fertile soil through desertification and salinization (Comas et al., 2013; FAO, 2016; Acosta-Motos et al., 2017; Franco-Navarro et al., 2021). In addition to this, warmer temperatures and higher humidity related to climate change can also increase pest and disease pressure on plants by altering the geographic range, population size, and timing of pest and disease outbreaks. Taken together abiotic stress related with climate change, such as drought or extreme temperature, may exacerbate the spread and severity of various diseases associated with biotic stress, increasing the vulnerability of plants to pathogens (some examples include insects, fungi, bacteria or viruses) (IPPC Secretariat, 2021).