- Author: Jacob Shea, UC Berkeley
Biological invasions are one of the three main causes for biodiversity loss globally, together with urbanization and climate change. Not unlike animals and plants, microbes can become invasive in non-native ecosystems. Some microbial invasions can lead to novel plant diseases with direct and detrimental effects on terrestrial ecosystems. The plant trade, both international and domestic, is thought to be a major pathway for the introduction and spread of exotic plant pathogenic microbes. Some introductions are accidental, but systematic introductions are significantly more detrimental for the integrity of natural ecosystems.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
With Californians sheltering in place to stop the spread of new coronavirus COVID-19, the annual citizen science project to map sudden oak death disease has been redesigned to ensure the safety of participants. The first in a series of SOD blitzes of 2020 will be April 11 in Napa. The events are free.
“We have been able to redesign the 2020 SOD Blitzes to make them a safe and legal activity that allows volunteers to exercise outdoors, and this powerful citizen science program will help us protect our forests' health,” said Matteo Garbelotto, UC Cooperative Extension forest pathology specialist and adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science,...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
In California, sudden oak death disease has killed more than 50 million of the state's iconic oaks and tanoak trees between Humboldt County and Monterey County, threatening survival of several tree species. In 2019 alone, 1 million tanoaks succumbed to sudden oak death (SOD), according to 2019 tree mortality data released by the U.S. Forest Service.
“Two new dangerous SOD strains are at the doors of our forests,” said Matteo Garbelotto, UC Cooperative Extension forest pathology specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. To assess the movement of SOD, he has mobilized citizen scientists for what he calls...
Sudden Oak Death (SOD), a serious exotic tree disease, threatens the survival of tanoak and several oak species in California. Currently, SOD infects trees in 14 coastal California counties, from Monterey to Humboldt. The disease, which was estimated to have killed over 50 million oaks and tanoaks over two decades, has changed the coastal forests composition in Northern California and Southern Oregon.
Though SOD occurs in patches, the overall infection area continues to grow with each passing year. Researchers had previously discovered that Phytophthora ramorum, the pathogen that causes SOD, most often spreads on the leaves of infected California bay laurel and tanoak. Forest managers can use proactive methods for...
- Author: Katie Harrell
Overall, 3.5 percent of the trees (based on those areas sampled during the blitzes) were found to be P. ramorum positive, a threefold drop from 2017. Yet, in San Mateo, Santa Clara and...
