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Whereas a biotic stress would include living disturbances such as fungi or harmful insects, abiotic stress factors, or stressors, are naturally occurring, often intangible and inanimate factors such as intense sunlight, temperature or wind that may cause harm to the plants and animals in the area affected. Abiotic stress is essentially unavoidable.
Injury in plants is damage caused by other organisms or by the non-living (abiotic) environment to plants. Animals that commonly cause injury to plants include insects, mites, nematodes, and herbivorous mammals; damage may also be caused by plant pathogens including fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Abiotic factors that can damage plants include ...
Just 2% of Earth's 1 million known insect species are harmful to plants, animals or humans. Here are 10 that can damage your vegetable gardens.
The true bugs, Hemiptera, have piercing and sucking mouthparts and live by sucking sap from plants. These include aphids, whiteflies and scale insects. Apart from weakening the plant, they encourage the growth of sooty mould on the honeydew the insects produce, which cuts out the light and reduces photosynthesis, stunting the plant's growth ...
They exist in soil in areas with hot climates or short winters. About 2000 species of plants worldwide are susceptible to infection by root-knot nematodes and they cause approximately 5% of global crop loss. [1] Root-knot nematode larvae infect plant roots, causing the development of root-knot galls that drain the plant's photosynthate and ...
The coating of plants with honeydew can contribute to the spread of fungi which can damage plants. [118] [119] Honeydew produced by aphids has been observed to reduce the effectiveness of fungicides as well. [120] A hypothesis that insect feeding may improve plant fitness was floated in the mid-1970s by Owen and Wiegert.
A systemic pesticide, which is incorporated into the soil or coated on seeds, may kill soil-dwelling insects, such as grubs or mole crickets as well as other insects, including bees, that are exposed to the leaves, fruits, pollen, and nectar of the treated plants. [4]
Notable early examples of live plant harbored pests—such as beech scale, chestnut blight, and white pine blister rust—led to the Plant Quarantine Act of 1912 and regulations from the US Department of Agriculture in 1919. Despite these and subsequent regulations, insects and pathogens have continued to be introduced through live plants.