Predicting ash dieback severity and environmental suitability for the disease in forest stands

Chumanová, Eva; Romportl, Dušan; Havrdová, L.; Zahradník, D.; Pešková, Vítězslava; Černý, K.

doi:10.1080/02827581.2019.1584638

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Our results are also in one line with recently conducted studies by Chumanová et al who determined that the fertile lowlands and humid areas bordering Poland and Slovakia were the most endangered regions for ash disease. Areas at the lowest risk of damage were concentrated in dry areas and in highland and mountain areas in the western part of the country, usually with poor soils on acid bedrock [30].…”

Section: Impact Of Soil Ph and Som Content On Crown Defoliationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Soil pH and Organic Matter Content Affects European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) Crown Defoliation and Its Impact on Understory Vegetation

Turczański

Rutkowski

Dyderski

et al. 2019

Forests

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European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) dieback caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (T. Kowalski) Baral, Queloz, and Hosoya has been affecting European forests since 1992. The disease drives severe crown defoliation, branch loss, and finally tree mortality in European ash. The environmental factors affecting the disease process are still not fully recognized. We hypothesized that the level of crown defoliation in ash, as well as its impact on understory vegetation, will differ along the pH gradient in soil. We examined 27 ash stands in western Poland. We assessed the crown defoliation of 15 dominant and co-dominant trees, soil parameters (pH and soil organic matter contents; SOM), and also recorded the understory vegetation species composition. Most moderately and severely damaged trees occurred within the plots with a high SOM content (>7.5%) and neutral to slightly alkaline soil pH (>7.0) in the A horizon. We noted significantly lower crown defoliation in mesic sites with acidic soils and lower SOM contents. The results also showed the influence of ash crown defoliation on the species functional composition. Ash dieback led to the creation of gaps, and their colonization by other species frequently found in forest sites, especially forest-edge tall herbs.

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Section: Impact Of Soil Ph and Som Content On Crown Defoliationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, in moist-potentially more fertile soils, the share of healthy trees was significantly smaller at 54% [32]. In general, more infected ash trees occur mostly on calcareous, organic soils, with the occurrence of a high groundwater level or moisture content [11,[28][29][30][31]34,35,37].…”

Section: Impact Of Soil Ph and Som Content On Crown Defoliationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil pH and Organic Matter Content Affects European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) Crown Defoliation and Its Impact on Understory Vegetation

Turczański

Rutkowski

Dyderski

et al. 2019

Forests

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“…The dieback of common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.), which has been occurring in Europe since the end of the 20th century and threatens the existence of the species [1,2], reveals the ecological and economical effects of major biotic changes in forests [2][3][4][5]. Despite high infection pressure, common ash is still struggling to survive, with 1-10% of trees considered to be resistant [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite high infection pressure, common ash is still struggling to survive, with 1-10% of trees considered to be resistant [6][7][8][9][10]. Nevertheless, considering the importance of common ash in Europe, efforts are still continuing to maintain the species despite the persisting pathogen pressure [3,[11][12][13][14]. As the pathogen is rapidly decreasing the abundance of its host, natural selection of less virulent strains of the fungus is expected to emerge, hopefully leading to a dynamic equilibrium, which needs time to occur [7,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Struggle of Ash—Insights from Long-Term Survey in Latvia

Matisone

Matisons

Jansons

2021

Forests

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The dieback of common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) has dramatically decreased the abundance of the species in Europe; however, tolerance of trees varies regionally. The tolerance of trees is considered to be a result of synergy of genetic and environmental factors, suggesting an uneven future potential of populations. This also implies that wide extrapolations would be biased and local information is needed. Survival of ash during 2005–2020, as well as stand- and tree-level variables affecting them was assessed based on four surveys of 15 permanent sampling plots from an eastern Baltic region (Latvia) using an additive model. Although at the beginning of dieback a relatively low mortality rate was observed, it increased during the 2015–2020 period, which was caused by dying of the most tolerant trees, though single trees have survived. In the studied stands, ash has been gradually replaced by other local tree species, though some recruitment of ash was locally observed, implying formation of mixed broadleaved stands with slight ash admixture. The survival of trees was related to tree height and position within a stand (relative height and local density), though the relationships were nonlinear, indicating presence of critical conditions. Regarding temporal changes, survival rapidly dropped during the first 16 years, stabilizing at a relatively low level. Although low recruitment of ash still implies plummeting economic importance of the species, the observed responses of survival, as well as the recruitment, imply potential to locally improve the survival of ash via management (tending), hopefully providing time for natural resistance to develop.

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“…In total, we analyzed 36,170 observations on ash trees from 1987-2020 in 27 countries and incorporated stand information as well as climate data in order to test for covariation between ash dieback-induced mortality and ecological variables that may accelerate or decelerate the decline as was recently suggested in earlier studies at regional scale (e.g. Klesse et al 2021; Díaz-Yáñez et al 2020; Chumanova et al 2019). We hypothesize that the mortality of both ash species has significantly increased throughout the last three decades resulting in a devastating ash dieback driven by ADB rather than by other abiotic and biotic agents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European-wide forest monitoring substantiate the neccessity for a joint conservation strategy to rescue European ash species (Fraxinus spp.)

George

Sanders²,

Timmermann

et al. 2021

Preprint

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European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and narrow-leafed ash (F. angustifolia) are keystone forest tree species in Europe with a broad ecological amplitude and significant economic importance. Besides global warming both species are currently under significant thread by an invasive fungal pathogen that has been progressively spreading throughout the continent for almost three decades. Ash dieback caused by the invasive ascomycete Hymenoscyphus fraxineus is capable of damaging ash trees of all age classes and often leads to the ultimate death of a tree after years of progressively developing crown defoliation. While studies at national and regional level already suggested rapid decline of ash populations as a result of ash dieback, a comprehensive survey at European level with harmonized crown assessment data across countries could shed more light into the population decline from a pan-European perspective and could also pave the way for a new conservation strategy beyond national boarders. Here, we present data from the ICP Forests Level I crown condition monitoring including 27 countries, covering the timespan from 1987-2020. In total, 407 survey plots randomly distributed across these countries were analyzed resulting in >36,000 individual observations. We found a substantial increase in defoliation and mortality over time indicating that crown defoliation has almost doubled during the last three decades. Hotspots of mortality are currently situated in southern Scandinavia and north-eastern Europe, well corresponding to the fact that the disease spread fast from north-east to north-west. Overall survival probability after nearly 30 years of infection has already reached a critical value of 0.51, but with large differences among regions (0.00-0.907). Both a Cox proportional hazard model as well as an Aalen additive regression model strongly suggest that survival of ash is significantly lower in locations with excessive water regime and which experienced more extreme precipitation events during the last two decades. Our results underpin the necessity for fast governmental acting and joint rescue efforts beyond national boarders since overall mean defoliation will likely reach 50% as early as 2030 as suggested by time series forecasting . We strongly recommend to develop a pan-European conservation strategy before the decline will reach its tipping point resulting into non-reversible loss of diversity in the European forest landscape.

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Predicting ash dieback severity and environmental suitability for the disease in forest stands

Cited by 16 publications

References 42 publications

Soil pH and Organic Matter Content Affects European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) Crown Defoliation and Its Impact on Understory Vegetation

Soil pH and Organic Matter Content Affects European Ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) Crown Defoliation and Its Impact on Understory Vegetation

The Struggle of Ash—Insights from Long-Term Survey in Latvia

European-wide forest monitoring substantiate the neccessity for a joint conservation strategy to rescue European ash species (Fraxinus spp.)

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