Hydrological - pathological interactions: disease susceptibility, tree decline and ecohydrology
Abstract
Changing frequencies and altered ranges of plant disease are highlighted as a major risk associated with global climate change. The role of changing temperature in driving changes in disease risk has been well highlighted, but the influence of variability in rainfall has received less attention, despite the importance of surface moisture for spread of foliar pathogens, of soil moisture for the increase of root rots, and the role of drought and plant water potential in predisposing plants to stem-disease. Here we present a simple stochastic approach to link ecohydrological predictions of soil- and plant-water potentials to the risk of pathogen disease and resulting plant stress. The approach is applicable both to pathogens which require high soil moisture content to grow within their hosts, and to host plants whose susceptibility to pathogens increases during periods of drought. The results offer a framework to link climatic and edaphic drivers to the risk of disease, and highlight the complexity of interrelationships between climatic and pathogenic drivers of tree decline.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.H52B..02T
- Keywords:
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- 0439 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- 0476 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Plant ecology;
- 1813 HYDROLOGY / Eco-hydrology