No rest for the laurels: symbiotic invaders cause unprecedented damage to southern USA forests

Hughes, Marc A.; Riggins, John J.; Koch, Frank; Cognato, Anthony I.; Anderson, C. Jane; Formby, John P.; Dreaden, Tyler J.; Ploetz, R. C.; Smith, Jason A.

doi:10.1007/s10530-017-1427-z

Cited by 97 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…The ambrosia fungus vectored by this species is responsible for the death of 300 million bay trees ( Persea spp.) and other Lauraceae in the southeastern United States (Hughes et al 2017). This species is distinguished by the dark color and the glabrous elytral disc and declivity with small granules in all interstriae decreasing in size toward apex.…”

Section: Systematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

North American Xyleborini north of Mexico: a review and key to genera and species (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

Gomez¹,

Rabaglia²,

Fairbanks³

et al. 2018

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Bark and ambrosia beetles (Scolytinae) are the most successful group of invasive wood borers worldwide, and the most invasive among them are species in the tribe Xyleborini. This haplodiploid, highly inbred, fungus-farming group is represented by 30 non-native species in North America, of which at least five are serious pests. The few identification resources for Xyleborini that exist are becoming outdated due to new species arrivals and nomenclatural changes. Here we present a new comprehensive key to Xyleborini currently known from the continental United States. Compared to the previous key, the following species have been added to the North American fauna: Ambrosiodmus minor (Stebbing), Ambrosiophilus nodulosus (Eggers), Anisandrus maiche Kurentsov, Coptoborus pseudotenuis (Schedl), Cyclorhipidion fukiense (Eggers), Dryocoetoides reticulatus Atkinson, Dryoxylon onoharaense (Murayama), Euwallacea interjectus (Blandford), Xyleborinus andrewesi (Blandford), Xyleborinus artestriatus (Eichhoff), Xyleborinus octiesdentatus (Murayama), Xyleborus bispinatus Eichhoff, Xyleborus seriatus Blandford, Xyleborus spinulosus Blandford, and Xylosandrus amputatus (Blandford).

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Section: Systematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

North American Xyleborini north of Mexico: a review and key to genera and species (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

Gomez¹,

Rabaglia²,

Fairbanks³

et al. 2018

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“…Little to no genetic variation was detected in isolates of the pathogen across the southeastern United States when Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLPs) and microsatellite markers were used [17]. With the same microsatellite markers and sequences of the large subunit of ribosomal (LSU) DNA, Wuest et al [37] also concluded that the population of R. lauricola in the United States was quite uniform, in contrast to far greater diversity that they detected in the pathogen in Japan and Taiwan.…”

Section: Pathogen Attributesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laurel Wilt in Natural and Agricultural Ecosystems: Understanding the Drivers and Scales of Complex Pathosystems

Ploetz

Kendra²,

Choudhury

et al. 2017

Forests

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Laurel wilt kills members of the Lauraceae plant family in the southeastern United States. It is caused by Raffaelea lauricola T.C. Harr., Fraedrich and Aghayeva, a nutritional fungal symbiont of an invasive Asian ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus Eichhoff, which was detected in Port Wentworth, Georgia, in 2002. The beetle is the primary vector of R. lauricola in forests along the southeastern coastal plain of the United States, but other ambrosia beetle species that obtained the pathogen after the initial introduction may play a role in the avocado (Persea americana Miller) pathosystem. Susceptible taxa are naïve (new-encounter) hosts that originated outside Asia. In the southeastern United States, over 300 million trees of redbay (P. borbonia (L.) Spreng.) have been lost, and other North American endemics, non-Asian ornamentals and avocado-an important crop that originated in MesoAmerica-are also affected. However, there are no reports of laurel wilt on the significant number of lauraceous endemics that occur in the Asian homeland of R. lauricola and X. glabratus; coevolved resistance to the disease in the region has been hypothesized. The rapid spread of laurel wilt in the United States is due to an efficient vector, X. glabratus, and the movement of wood infested with the insect and pathogen. These factors, the absence of fully resistant genotypes, and the paucity of effective control measures severely constrain the disease's management in forest ecosystems and avocado production areas.

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“…Invasions of pests and pathogens in naïve landscapes can rapidly and dramatically alter communities and degrade ecosystem services. Introduced pests and pathogens have devastated native forests around the world, disturbing food webs and leading to rapid environmental degradation in some cases (Akiba and Nakamura 2005;Cobb et al 2012;Guo et al 2019;Hughes et al 2017;Ireland et al 2012;Welsh et al 2009;Wong and Daniels 2017). The density and size of hosts can significantly affect the ability of a pathogen to invade an area, as more clustered hosts can often lead to rapid transmission of disease between susceptible individuals (Anderson and May 1986;Gilbert et al 1994;Holt et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although R. lauricola has been detected in X. glabratus in Asia (Dreaden et al 2019;Harrington et al 2011), laurel wilt disease has not been found in the US prior to the appearance of the X. glabratus (Ploetz et al 2013). R. lauricola populations are quite diverse in East Asia, but the pathogen and its vector seem to be clonal in the US (Cognato et al 2019;Dreaden et al 2019;Hughes et al 2017;Wuest et al 2017). This suggests that both were introduced in a single event, possibly being carried to the port of entry in untreated packing material Ploetz et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsequently, we evaluated laurel wilt disease dynamics at another site in South-central Florida for which detailed spatio-temporal information over the course of an epidemic was available. Previous studies of laurel wilt have focused on redbay and avocado (Hanula and Sullivan 2008;Hughes et al 2017;Ploetz et al 2017;Shields et al 2011). In the present work, in addition to redbay, we studied swampbay P. palustris, syn.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Host density dependence and environmental factors affecting laurel wilt invasion

Choudhury

Hughes

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Host size, density and distribution, in addition to climate, can affect the likelihood a pathogen will invade and saturate landscapes. Laurel wilt, caused by the vector-borne forest pathogen Raffaelea lauricola, has devastated populations of native Lauraceae in the Southeastern US, and continues to spread. We surveyed 87 plots in six coastal islands in South Carolina, Georgia and North Florida, and one inland site (Archbold Biological Station) in South Florida for laurel wilt-affected and non-affected individual plants belonging to the genus Persea. The coastal island sites were surveyed once in 2008 or 2009, and the inland site was surveyed eight times from 2011 to 2013. Disease incidence per plot ranged from 0% to 96%, with mean disease incidence 45% across all sites. Disease incidence was positively correlated with trunk diameter and density of hosts with trunk diameter > 5 cm, but negatively with the degree of clustering, which was highest for small trees. A recursive partitioning model indicated that higher disease incidence was associated with moderate temperatures, wider trunk diameter, lower relative humidity, and lower wind speeds. Disease progress over time at Archbold followed a Gompertz curve, plateauing at 3% in two years. The dispersal kernel for disease incidence from a focus followed a negative exponential distribution. The number of plots with diseased trees at Archbold was similar for redbay (P. borbonia) and swampbay (P. palustris), but was lower for silkbay (P. humilis). Understanding how host density, size, and diversity interact with environmental effects will help guide future risk prediction efforts.

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No rest for the laurels: symbiotic invaders cause unprecedented damage to southern USA forests

Cited by 97 publications

References 75 publications

North American Xyleborini north of Mexico: a review and key to genera and species (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

North American Xyleborini north of Mexico: a review and key to genera and species (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

Laurel Wilt in Natural and Agricultural Ecosystems: Understanding the Drivers and Scales of Complex Pathosystems

Host density dependence and environmental factors affecting laurel wilt invasion

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