Population Dynamics of Wheat Pests in the Context of Climate Change

Ana-Maria Vălean¹, Laura Șopterean¹, Adina Tărău¹,
Loredana Suciu², Florin Russu¹

¹Agricultural Research and Development Station Turda
²University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca

Keywords: pests, wheat, monitoring, agroforestry shelterbelts, temperature.

Abstract: The major importance of wheat cultivation for global food security means that any factor affecting its productivity can have significant worldwide consequences. In this context, climate change represents an increasingly serious threat to sustainable wheat production, not only through its direct negative effects on the plant’s physiological processes but also through its impact on the biology and population dynamics of insect pests. Increasing temperatures can lead to the acceleration of the biological cycles of insect pests, an increase in the number of generations per year, and the expansion of their distribution range. Therefore, pest monitoring plays an essential role, as it allows the timely identification of harmful species, the assessment of infestation levels, and the determination of the optimal timing for implementing control measures.
Considering the importance of pest monitoring in assessing phytosanitary risks and supporting integrated crop protection strategies, a study was conducted at ARDS Turda to monitor insect pests in winter wheat, with the aim of highlighting their population dynamics in the context of climate change. Pest collection activities were carried out within an agroecosystem characterized by protective agroforestry shelterbelts, using an entomological sweep net as the sampling method. The study monitored the dynamics of the main wheat pests over two distinct periods, 2016-2018 and 2022-2024. To accurately reflect natural population dynamics, the results presented are derived from experimental plots where no insecticide treatments were applied.
The results of this study showed that, during the 2022-2024 period, average temperature values were higher compared to the 2016-2018 interval, and during the same period a significant increase in wheat pest density was recorded. All evaluated species, including cereal aphids (Aphididae), wheat thrips (Haplothrips tritici), cereal stink bugs (Eurygaster sp.), and cereal leafhoppers (Delphacidae, Cicadellidae), exhibited higher population levels in 2022-2024 than in 2016-2018.