Predicting potential and actual distribution of sudden oak death in Oregon: Prioritizing landscape contexts for early detection and eradication of disease outbreaks

Spatial estimation of the density and carbon content of host populations for Phytophthora ramorum in California and Oregon

“…The results from our study should be combined with regional scale analyses of disease risk (c.f. Meentemeyer et al, 2004Meentemeyer et al, , 2008aVáclavík et al, 2010) to assess the potential ecological impacts of sudden oak death. Host populations and their carbon contents are likely to shift with mortality and release of co-occurring trees via apparent competition.…”

“…Regional spread risk models predict that P. ramorum could undergo considerable range expansion over the next 20 years due to high host contagion and suitable weather conditions in California and Oregon (Meentemeyer et al, 2008aVáclavík et al, 2010). However, our ability to forecast large-scale impacts of disease on declines in tree diversity and forest carbon pools has been impeded by a lack of spatially-explicit data on the density and carbon content of P. ramorum host populations.…”

“…To date, landscape-to regional-scale models of disease risk have relied on remotely sensed maps of host distribution in the form of unitless indices of host presence and abundance (e.g. Meentemeyer et al, 2004;Václavík et al, 2010) or as vegetation community types (e.g. Meentemeyer et al, 2008c) rather than field-based measurements of stem density and size.…”

Sudden oak death management in Oregon tanoak forests

“…While not considered an important timber species, tanoak is valued by Native American communities in Oregon and California, and provides high nesting, roosting, and foraging value for a variety of wildlife species, and among other ecological values, supports high ectomycorrhizal diversity (Rizzo et al 2005, Bergemann and Garbelotto 2006, Bowcutt 2013. Based on modeling incorporating host presence, particularly tanoak, and climate conducive to pathogen survival and spread, approximately 38 percent of Curry County is considered to be at very high or high risk for disease establishment, with progressively less very high or high risk area in Josephine, Coos, and Douglas Counties (Figure 1) (Václavik et al 2010). …”

Foreword: Innovation and dedication underpin management of sudden oak death (Phytophthora ramorum) in California and Oregon forests

“…Other innovations include the sequencing of P. ramorum's genome, just a few years after the microbe's discovery, which provided insights into pathogen biology (Tyler et al 2006); development of an online, publically accessible geographic information system (GIS) map, oak mapper (www.oakmapper.org, Kelly, 2017) and a mobile application, SOD map ; and improved statistical models that account for epidemiology, vegetation composition, spatial and topographic factors (Václavik et al 2010, Meentemeyer et al 2012, Cunniffe et al 2016). Molecular hostpathogen interactions were elucidated in the first reference transcriptome for tanoak, allowing the preliminary identification of disease-related genes (Hayden et al 2014).…”