Ecology of invasive forest pathogens

Ghelardini, Luisa; Luchi, Nicola; Pecori, Francesco; Pepori, Alessia Lucia; Danti, Roberto; Rocca, Gianni Della; Capretti, P.; Tsopelas, P.; Santini, Alberto

doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1487-0

Cited by 65 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 154 publications

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“…This not only creates challenges in designing control measures for pathogens as a general invasive threat, but also in tackling individual pathogens, which can present unfamiliar life history traits . These complex and often still unknown life histories, as well as their potential for relatively rapid evolution, restrict our ability to predict which pathogens will become invasive, and how any invasion will progress (Ghelardini et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Forest Management Options on Forest Resilience to Pathogens

Roberts

Gilligan

Kleczkowski

et al. 2020

Front. For. Glob. Change

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Invasive pathogens threaten the ability of forests globally to produce a range of valuable ecosystem services over time. However, the ability to detect such pathogen invasions-and thus to produce appropriate and timely management responses-is relatively low. We argue that a promising approach is to plan and manage forests in a way that increases their resilience to invasive pathogens not yet present or ubiquitous in the forest. This paper is based on a systematic search and critical review of empirical evidence of the effect of a wide range of forest management options on the primary and secondary infection rates of forest pathogens, and on subsequent forest recovery. Our goals are to inform forest management decision making to increase forest resilience, and to identify the most important evidence gaps for future research. The management options for which there is the strongest evidence that they increase forest resilience to pathogens are: reduced forest connectivity, removal or treatment of inoculum sources such as cut stumps, reduced tree density, removal of diseased trees and increased tree species diversity. In all cases the effect of these options on infection dynamics differs greatly amongst tree and pathogen species and between forest environments. However, the lack of consistent effects of silvicultural systems or of thinning, pruning or coppicing treatments is notable. There is also a lack of evidence of how the effects of treatments are influenced by the scale at which they are applied, e.g., the mixture of tree species. An overall conclusion is that forest managers often need to trade-off increased resilience to tree pathogens against other benefits obtained from forests.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Forest Management Options on Forest Resilience to Pathogens

Roberts

Gilligan

Kleczkowski

et al. 2020

Front. For. Glob. Change

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“…The dynamics of these two types of sequestration modes differ, which affect their contribution to climate policy [23]. In this study we consider only above ground sequestration due to our focus on the impact of pathogens, and little is known about their effects in general and particularly on below ground conditions [10]. Carbon sequestration in each EU country i = 1,...,n and type of forest, u, (conifer, deciduous, and afforested land) is then determined by the difference in productivity, defined as forest volume per ha, between two time periods, S i,u t , written as:…”

Section: Structure Of the Dynamic Optimization Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…is the growth function and H i,u t is the harvest, assumed to occur at the end of the year. Pathogens show diverse impacts from the gene to the ecosystem system level, and can affect the growth of trees, mortality rate, and quality of timber [10]. The effects on the trees depend on their resistance, and on the impact on the forest ecosystem.…”

Section: Structure Of the Dynamic Optimization Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…where β i is the depreciation rate and X i t is the annual investment in cleaning technologies. Solving for the integral in Equation (10) gives:…”

Section: Structure Of the Dynamic Optimization Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number of infectious fungi species in plants have increased 13-fold from 1995 to 2010 [9]. Today, Europe is the continent with the highest number of invasive pathogens in forests, which is four to five times higher than the reported number for China and the USA [10]. Forest pathogens, such as the needle disease Dothistroma septosporum spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest Carbon Sequestration, Pathogens and the Costs of the EU’s 2050 Climate Targets

Gren

Aklilu

Elofsson

2018

Forests

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Carbon sequestration is suggested as a low-cost option for climate change mitigation, the functioning of which can be threatened by pathogen infestation. This study calculates the effects of infectious pathogens on the cost of achieving the EU’s 2050 climate targets by combining the so-called production function method with the replacement cost method. Pathogens are then assumed to affect carbon sink enhancement through the impact on productivity of forest land, and carbon sequestration is valued as the replacement for costly reductions in emissions from fossil fuels for reaching the EU’s 2050 climate targets. To this end, we have constructed a numerical dynamic optimization model with a logistic forest growth function, a simple allometric representation of the spread of pathogens in forests, and reductions in emissions from fossil fuels. The results show that the annual value of forest carbon sequestration ranges between approximately 6.4 and 14.9 billion Euros, depending on the impact and dispersal of pathogens. Relatively large values are obtained for countries with large emissions from fossil fuels, e.g., Germany, France, Spain and Italy, which also face costs of pathogen together with countries with large forest area, such as Romania.

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