World forests, global change, and emerging pests and pathogens

Highlights

• Forest loss contributes to pest and pathogen emergence and spread.

• Forests and surrounding areas exchange pests and microbes at an unprecedented rate.

• Trade and transportation contribute to pathogen and pest widescale dissemination.

• Research on plant pathogens and pests at large scale is needed.

• Future studies should identify functional traits causing disease and pest invasion.

Global changes play today an important role in altering patterns of human, animal, and plant host–pathogen interactions and invasive pest species. With rapid development in sequencing technology, there is also an increase in pathogen and pest studies adopting a macroscale, biogeographical perspective, and we present the most recent elements on existing ecological and biogeographical trends. We also compare the results on the one hand on emerging infectious diseases of animals and humans, and on the other hand on plant pathogens and pests. International exchanges of people, animals, and plant products currently contribute to their geographical extension but with notable differences across disease and pest systems, and regions. This review highlights that the subject of pathogens and plant pests, traditionally rooted in agronomic approaches, lacks work on macroecology and biogeography. We discuss the research orientations to better anticipate their ecological and economic impacts in order to better achieve environmental sustainability.