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California's iconic redwoods in danger from fire and infectious disease
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=128879&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click[font face=Serif][font size=5]California's iconic redwoods in danger from fire and infectious disease[/font]
[font size=4]Pathogen that causes sudden oak death leaves redwoods vulnerable to fire[/font]
[font size=3]August 21, 2013
The following is part six in a series on the NSF-NIH Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program. For part one, see Cool Cat in a Hot Zone. For part two: Snails in the Waters, Disease in the Villages. For part three: Underwater Whodunit: What's Killing Florida's Elkhorn Coral? For part four: "Defective" Virus Leads to Epidemic of Dengue Fever. For part five: Sick Sea Fans: Undersea "Doctors" to the Rescue.
First it was sudden oak death, the oak disease caused by the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, that threatened California's extensive coastal forests.
Now these forests' stately trees are facing a new menace: the combined effects of sudden oak death and fire. And this time, the iconic redwoods are at risk.
Usually resistant to the effects of wildfires, California's coast redwoods are now burning as fast as other trees. Why?
…
After the fires were under control, the scientists returned to their study plots. Half had long been infested with the sudden oak death pathogen; half had been spared. The redwoods' mortality risk, it turned out, was four times higher in the sudden oak death plots as in healthy plots.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]Pathogen that causes sudden oak death leaves redwoods vulnerable to fire[/font]
[font size=3]August 21, 2013
The following is part six in a series on the NSF-NIH Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program. For part one, see Cool Cat in a Hot Zone. For part two: Snails in the Waters, Disease in the Villages. For part three: Underwater Whodunit: What's Killing Florida's Elkhorn Coral? For part four: "Defective" Virus Leads to Epidemic of Dengue Fever. For part five: Sick Sea Fans: Undersea "Doctors" to the Rescue.
First it was sudden oak death, the oak disease caused by the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, that threatened California's extensive coastal forests.
Now these forests' stately trees are facing a new menace: the combined effects of sudden oak death and fire. And this time, the iconic redwoods are at risk.
Usually resistant to the effects of wildfires, California's coast redwoods are now burning as fast as other trees. Why?
…
After the fires were under control, the scientists returned to their study plots. Half had long been infested with the sudden oak death pathogen; half had been spared. The redwoods' mortality risk, it turned out, was four times higher in the sudden oak death plots as in healthy plots.
…[/font][/font]