Drought-induced forest dieback appears to have increased in frequency over the last decade (Van Mantgem et al. 2009; Allen et al. 2010; Peng et al. 2011). These diebacks have occurred across a wide diversity of forest types, suggesting that no forest biome is invulnerable to climate change (Choat et al. 2012). However, drought-influenced mortality rates differ substantially between species grow...

Vineyards with trunk diseases (Botryosphaeria dieback, Esca, Eutypa dieback, and Phomopsis dieback) can have negative returns in the long run. Minimizing economic impacts depends on effective management, but adopting a preventative practice after infection occurs may not improve yields. Pest control advisers may reduce grower uncertainty about the efficacy of and need for prevention, which ofte...

We examined whether extensive dry season dieback and mortality in a South African fynbos community were due to drought or pathogen attack. Plant dieback and mortality have been reported elsewhere in similar plant communities suggesting potential for a widespread climatic or biotic threat to this community.We collected tissue samples from Brunia noduliflora, the dominant plant in the community, ...

We measured dieback and mortality in a chaparral shrub community at a chaparral/desert ecotone following four years of below-average rainfall. Ecotones are important systems in which to examine plant and community responses to extreme and prolonged drought conditions and the potential impact of global change on plant distributions and community composition. Following a particularly severe droug...

Abstract Key message Reconstruction of needle dynamics reveals prolonged drought legacy effects on crown condition that represent early warnings drought-induced dieback in Scots pine. Understanding the mechanisms forest and tree mortality is a priority for predicting responses to climate change. However, long-term information impacts how it relates water carbon economy still lacking. Comparing ...

Results of a two-day reconnaissance survey of kamahi ( Weinmannia racemosa ) dieback on the Kaitake Range, Egmont National Park are reported using an earlier survey conducted in 1978 and 1979 as the baseline.

The polyphagous shot hole borer and Kuroshio shot hole borer, two members of the Euwallacea fornicatus species complex (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), are invasive ambrosia beetles that harbor distinct species of Fusarium fungal symbionts. Together with the damage caused by gallery construction, these two phytopathogenic Fusarium species are responsible for the emerging tree disease Fu...

Phytophthora ramorum is a recently established invasive pathogen in some mixed-hardwood forests of central coastal California (10,11) and extreme southwestern Oregon (5). It also is known from horticultural nurseries and landscape plantings in Europe (12) and recently was reported from a few nurseries in California and Oregon (6,9). Symptoms are dramatically different on different host species....

www.frontiersinecology.org © The Ecological Society of America E political action catalyzed about 35 years ago in Europe, with the widespread public perception that forests were dying as a result of air pollution and related acid deposition (Schütt and Cowling 1985; Innes 1987; Kandler and Innes 1995). This apparent decline, considered to be unprecedented in a broad spatiotemporal context, stim...

Healthy specimens of selected grasses were collected from salt marshes and grown in the greenhouse. Plants were inoculated with Meloidogyne spartinae to determine the host range of this nematode. After 12 weeks, Spartina alterniflora plants formed root galls in response to infection and increased M. spartinae populations. Spartina patens, Spartina cynosuroides, Juncus gerardii and Distichlis sp...