2024/12/13 by Millar, Chloe, Buckey, Julia, Hagino, Ross +1
#Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) #forest management #lumber #pine pitch canker #plant pathology
paper · doi:10.21973/n3jh3k
An increased understanding of plant pathology, particularly transmission mechanisms, provides important insight into containment and prevention strategies for plant diseases. Pine pitch canker (PPC) negatively impacts the health of Monterey pines, an evergreen conifer endemic to California and a prominent figure in the lumber industry. For this study, the number of PPC infections were assessed on a centralized focal tree and surrounding trees, with infection abundance subsequently compared across managed and unmanaged forest sites. There was no correlation between the number of infections on close trees or the percentage of surrounding infected trees on the infection severity of the focal tree. Additionally, no significant difference was found between the average number of infections per tree between the managed and unmanaged sites. These results support the conception that a system-wide approach to disease diagnosis and management is necessary to properly account for the differences in dispersal and presentation within a disease.