Examining the strength and possible causes of the relationship between fire history and Sudden Oak Death

Interacting Effects of Global Change on Forest Pest and Pathogen Dynamics

Pathogens and insect pests are important drivers of tree mortality and forest dynamics, but global change has rapidly altered or intensified their impacts. Predictive understanding of changing disease and outbreak occurrence has been limited by two factors: ( a) tree mortality and morbidity are emergent phenomena determined by interactions between plant hosts, biotic agents (insects or pathogens), and the environment; and ( b) disparate global change drivers co-occur, obscuring net impacts on each of these components. To expand our understanding of changing forest diseases, declines, and outbreaks, we adopt a framework that identifies and organizes observed impacts of diverse global change drivers on the primary mechanisms underlying agent virulence and host susceptibility. We then discuss insights from ecological theory that may advance prediction of forest epidemics and outbreaks. This approach highlights key drivers of changing pest and pathogen dynamics, which may inform forest management aimed at mitigating accelerating rates of tree mortality globally.

The key host for an invasive forest pathogen also facilitates the pathogen's survival of wildfire in California forests

The first wildfires in sudden oak death-impacted forests occurred in 2008 in the Big Sur region of California, creating the rare opportunity to study the interaction between an invasive forest pathogen and a historically recurring disturbance. To determine whether and how the sudden oak death pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, survived the wildfires, we completed intensive vegetation-based surveys in forest plots that were known to be infested before the wildfires. We then used 24 plot-based variables as predictors of P. ramorum recovery following the wildfires. The likelihood of recovering P. ramorum from burned plots was lower than in unburned plots both 1 and 2 yr following the fires. Post-fire recovery of P. ramorum in burned plots was positively correlated with the number of pre-fire symptomatic California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica), the key sporulating host for this pathogen, and negatively correlated with post-fire bay laurel mortality levels. Patchy burn patterns that left green, P. ramorum-infected bay laurel amidst the charred landscape may have allowed these trees to serve as inoculum reservoirs that could lead to the infection of newly sprouting vegetation, further highlighting the importance of bay laurel in the sudden oak death disease cycle.

Influence of land-cover change on the spread of an invasive forest pathogen

Human-caused changes in land use and land cover have dramatically altered ecosystems worldwide and may facilitate the spread of infectious diseases. To address this issue, we examined the influence of land-cover changes between 1942 and 2000 on the establishment of an invasive pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, which causes the forest disease known as Sudden Oak Death. We assessed effects of land-cover change, forest structure, and understory microclimate on measures of inoculum load and disease prevalence in 102 15 x 15 m plots within a 275-km2 region in northern California. Within a 150 m radius area around each plot, we mapped types of land cover (oak woodland, chaparral, grassland, vineyard, and development) in 1942 and 2000 using detailed aerial photos. During this 58-year period, oak woodlands significantly increased in area by 25%, while grassland and chaparral decreased by 34% and 51%, respectively. Analysis of covariance revealed that vegetation type in 1942 and woodland expansion were significant predictors of pathogen inoculum load in bay laurel (Umbellularia californica), the primary inoculum-producing host for P. ramorum in mixed evergreen forests. Path analysis showed that woodland expansion resulted in larger forests with higher densities of the primary host trees (U. californica, Quercus agrifolia, Q. kelloggii) and cooler understory temperatures. Together, the positive effects of woodland size and negative effects of understory temperature explained significant variation in inoculum load and disease prevalence in bay laurel; host stem density had additional positive effects on inoculum load. We conclude that enlargement of woodlands and closure of canopy gaps, likely due largely to years of fire suppression, facilitated establishment of P. ramorum by increasing the area occupied by inoculum-production foliar hosts and enhancing forest microclimate conditions. Epidemiological studies that incorporate land-use change are rare but may increase understanding of disease dynamics and improve our ability to manage invasive forest pathogens.

Modelling disease spread and control in networks: implications for plant sciences

Networks are ubiquitous in natural, technological and social systems. They are of increasing relevance for improved understanding and control of infectious diseases of plants, animals and humans, given the interconnectedness of today's world. Recent modelling work on disease development in complex networks shows: the relative rapidity of pathogen spread in scale-free compared with random networks, unless there is high local clustering; the theoretical absence of an epidemic threshold in scale-free networks of infinite size, which implies that diseases with low infection rates can spread in them, but the emergence of a threshold when realistic features are added to networks (e.g. finite size, household structure or deactivation of links); and the influence on epidemic dynamics of asymmetrical interactions. Models suggest that control of pathogens spreading in scale-free networks should focus on highly connected individuals rather than on mass random immunization. A growing number of empirical applications of network theory in human medicine and animal disease ecology confirm the potential of the approach, and suggest that network thinking could also benefit plant epidemiology and forest pathology, particularly in human-modified pathosystems linked by commercial transport of plant and disease propagules. Potential consequences for the study and management of plant and tree diseases are discussed.

Phytophthora ramorum: integrative research and management of an emerging pathogen in California and Oregon forests

Phytophthora ramorum, causal agent of sudden oak death, is an emerging plant pathogen first observed in North America associated with mortality of tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) and coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) in coastal forests of California during the mid-1990s. The pathogen is now known to occur in North America and Europe and have a host range of over 40 plant genera. Sudden oak death has become an example of unintended linkages between the horticultural industry and potential impacts on forest ecosystems. This paper examines the biology and ecology of P. ramorum in California and Oregon forests as well discussing research on the pathogen in a broader management context.