Unraveling the prevalence of soil-borne fungal pathogens in the North China Plain: a global analysis approach

Soil-borne fungal plant pathogens lead to worldwide economic yield losses. However, despite the agricultural importance of the North China Plain (NCP), little is known about the occurrence and severity of soil-borne fungal pathogens that could potentially affect the yields of three main crops in this area: wheat, maize and soybean. By combining searches in public databases, we identified a set of main soil-borne fungal pathogen species potentially affecting crop production in the NCP. We investigated their distribution patterns at three scales: globally, in China and in the NCP, and evaluated how these patterns were determined by a range of variables related to climate, spatial drivers and crop area density of the three crop species. We found 25 main soil-borne fungal pathogens that could potentially affect the yields of wheat, maize and soybean in the NCP. Twenty of these fungal pathogens were prevalent across the globe, and 13 were very frequent in the NCP. Significant positive relationships between pathogen prevalence and crop area density were only found for two specialist pathogens. Our work provides an overview of the main soil-borne fungal pathogens in one of China’s most intensively cultivated regions, shedding light on potential, previously overlooked, fungal threats for agricultural production in the area. This baseline information may contribute to the development of sustainable management strategies aimed at mitigating disease outbreaks caused by soil-borne pathogens in the future.