Posted on 04/09/2003 8:22:56 AM PDT by cogitator
Sudden Oak Death Impacting Other Species
Sudden Oak Death Impacting Other Species
BERKELEY, California, April 8, 2003 (ENS) - Researchers believe a highly contagious disease that has killed tens of thousands of native California oaks could be spread by a wide range of other species.
Sudden Oak Death (SOD) was first reported in 1995 in Marin County, California in oaks and tanoaks, but now scientists think that nearly all the main tree species in California's forests, as well as forest shrubbery and undergrowth, may act as hosts for the disease.
"SOD's reproductive strategy may make it able to persist indefinitely in infested forests and may affect the success of future regeneration and restoration efforts," according to Matteo Garbelotto, an extension forest pathologist and adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley who has been researching the disease.
"What we hypothesized and what we are now confirming is that SOD is not spreading via the oaks, but is instead using a huge range of native plants for reproduction," he explained.
The disease is caused by a funguslike brown larvae related to the organism that caused the nineteenth century Irish potato famine. Scientists are not certain how the disease got to California, but some suspect through imported nursery plants.
It appears to use the leaves, branches and stems of its hosts to reproduce, leaving behind lesions and leaf discoloration. It does not kill the host plant outright, according to scientists, but repeated SOD infections are likely to weaken the plant over time, negatively impacting its growth and making it susceptible to other diseases and insects.
Scientists knew the disease was spread by plants other than oaks, including plants from the rhododendron family, but evidence that it could have such a broader range of potential hosts brings good and bad news to those trying to combat the disease.
It increases the potential impact on California's forests and ecosystems, but also gives scientists greater understanding of the disease.
"The more we know about how SOD is spreading, the greater the chances for finding a way to control it," Garbelotto said.
An International Symposium on SOD will be held online from April 21 to May 4 by the American Phytopathological Society.
No kidding! Until two years ago the Washington State Transportation Department planted it at road building projects!
I know this is, at best, a distant solution, but is it possible?
So9
I would guess that it is only selectively possible. If there are resistant specimens among a species one might be able to identify that genetic trait and cross-breed it into new individuals. NOTHING can be done for existing specimens genetically that way. Even if they did identify resistant alleles, they would still have to distribute that trait. By pollen seeding? Who knows, there are a lot of trees out there and that is a lot of pollen (in tonnage). Finally, propoagating many native plants by seed is no picnic. The research is very primitive. I am actually doing a little on plant propagation in my spare opportunistic moments that improve the ability to reintroduce local stock in the field. I have an air-layering process for manzanita that is not in the literature and am fooling around with charate instead of fire-scarification on manzanita seed.
Another tack might be to identify a parasite of the disease (a bacteria or virus that would consume or infect phytophthora alone) or something that inhibits its action in the host by more successfully occupuying the niche in advance. Both strike me as high-risk options.
It's bad. It could have been prevented. The system needs to change before it happens again. If we can instute that change we may have more success at finding solutions. That's the real message here.
Yes it's possible, I'd be surprized if someone isn't working on it right now.
That sounds interesting. Have you had any success yet?
I just started the experiments with charate this spring. I dug some out of the edges of a burn pile and raked it in under a large manzanita bush. If I get germination in a year or two, voila! I'll have proof that boiling acid or fire scarification is unnecessary. Identifying the chemical brew that activates the seed would hake an analytical chemist, a lab, and a lot of time. Meanwhile, I hope to be getting plants.
Manzanita varies a great deal genetically; it is still a very dynamic genus. It is therefore very important to be careful about cultivars crossbreeding local stock (the pollen can travel a quarter mile). Hence the need to improve local propagation processes without requiring a fire. It's also important to teach local landowners not to mess with what they have genetically unless they know what they are doing and can confine the consequences until they do.
I don't like messing with native alleles. We have too much to learn from them to do that.
I'm not familiar with this plant. Is it an algae type plant called stonewart?
Me too. It's also documented to be helpful in germinating salvia species. I wouldn't doubt that it helps with a number of others. It could be a "baggable" product of vegetation management projects so that neighbors could more quickly bring back their native understory species. I don't think it could be used outside the area due to concern with spreading seed.
Sorry about the tagline, that got set a couple of posts ago and I forgot to change it back.
Perhaps commercial irradiation would allieviate those concerns without altering the beneficial qualities?
So true. If you look at the collapse of the Atlantic Groundfish stocks off of Newfoundland, etc, you'll see that bad science was to blame for much of the initial stock depletion not being more quickly noted and addressed. Local fisherman told government folks what was going on, what they saw in their catch. Even deep fishing companiesa were reporting changes in their catch. The government officials, the folks charged in part with managing the groundfish, used kooky science to the point that the cod and other species collapsed in the mid-90's.
And then the envirowhackos blamed it on the fishing industry! Of course, some countries were illegally fishing, but you have to look long and hard at the government.
Dang! Did it again.
I'll half to git wit Dale Carnegie and larn mower how to effluents people.
Don't stand next to me!!!
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