Skip to Main Content
U.S. Forest Service
Caring for the land and serving people

United States Department of Agriculture

Home > Search > Publication Information

  1. Temporal fluctuations and the role of disturbance in disease progression of the sudden oak death epidemic

    Share via EmailShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on Twitter
    Dislike this pubLike this pub
    Author(s): Melina Kozanitas; Todd W. Osmundson; Matteo Garbelotto
    Date: 2013
    Source: In: Frankel, S.J.; Kliejunas, J.T.; Palmieri, K.M.; Alexander, J.M. tech. coords. Proceedings of the sudden oak death fifth science symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-243. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: p. 94
    Publication Series: General Technical Report (GTR)
    Station: Pacific Southwest Research Station
    PDF: Download Publication  (0 B)
    Note: This article is part of a larger document. View the larger document

    Description

    With its high host mortality and ability to cause landscape-scale alterations in forest cover and composition, sudden oak death (SOD) (etiological agent Phytophthora ramorum, Stramenopila, Oomycota) mirrors past forest disease epidemics such as Chestnut Blight and Dutch Elm Disease. In contrast with these past epidemics, however, the appearance of SOD converges with a time of significant advancement in the development of molecular genetic tools that allow the movement of individuals (or individual genotypes) to be tracked and the role of evolutionary processes in disease progression to be assessed. Such methods have been instrumental in reconstructing the likely origins and geographic pathways of spread of the pathogen. However, little is yet known about the local-scale processes contributing to disease maintenance and progression. Since 2008, we have surveyed a network of sampling plots in the San Francisco Bay Area multiple times per year in order to examine seasonal patterns in the incidence and population genetic structure of infection foci. A period of severe drought in 2007-2009, followed by a period of normal to above-normal precipitation in 2010-2011, provide a significant opportunity to examine the effects of abiotic disturbance on disease progression. Here, we present recent and ongoing research focused on assessing seasonal patterns in genotypic diversity of viable infections that can act as reservoirs of new infectious propagules, assessing the effect of drought as a potential agent of selection on pathogen genotypes, examining the relationship between infections on dead-end (Quercus) and amplifying (California bay laurel, Umbellularia californica (Hook. & Arn.) Nutt.) hosts, and assessing the possible role of competitive interactions with sympatric Phytophthora species (P. pseudosyringae, P. nemorosa) using culture-based surveys, culture-independent (qPCR) assays, and analyses of population genetic structure (based on variable microsatellite loci) to infer the underlying processes of pathogen demographic expansion, contraction, and spread.

    Publication Notes

    • You may send email to psw_communications@fs.fed.us to request a hard copy of this publication.
    • (Please specify exactly which publication you are requesting and your mailing address.)
    • We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
    • This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

    Citation

    Kozanitas, Melina; Osmundson, Todd W.; Garbelotto, Matteo. 2013. Temporal fluctuations and the role of disturbance in disease progression of the sudden oak death epidemic. In: Frankel, S.J.; Kliejunas, J.T.; Palmieri, K.M.; Alexander, J.M. tech. coords. Proceedings of the sudden oak death fifth science symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-243. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: p. 94.

    Keywords

    Sudden oak death, Phytophthora ramorum, invasive species, tanoak, Notholithocarpus densiflorus, coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, Japanese larch, Larix kaempferi

    Related Search

    XML: View XML
Show More
Show Fewer
Jump to Top of Page
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/44132