Tree disease and pest epidemics in the Anthropocene: A review of the drivers, impacts and policy responses in the UK

Potter, Clive; Urquhart, Julie

doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2016.06.024

Cited by 48 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…More than half of the world's forests are production or multipurpose forests (FAO, ), and when managed carefully and sustainably they have significant potential for the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services (Quine et al., ; Triviño et al., ). However, forestry in general is under increasing threat from various factors including disease (Freer‐Smith & Webber, ; Potter & Urquhart, ) and climate change (Ray, Morison, & Broadmeadow, ; Seidl et al., ). For example, Corsican pine ( Pinus nigra ), Japanese larch ( Larvis kaempferi ) and ash ( Fraxinus excelsior ), are all important species in British forestry that are currently undergoing major declines or being rendered unviable as a result of pathogen outbreaks (Freer‐Smith & Webber, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying cultural ecosystem services: Disentangling the effects of management from landscape features

2019

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Cultural ecosystem services are undeniably important, yet are typically neglected in land management decisions due to a suite of intractable challenges: they are highly complex, localised, and inextricably associated with landscape features. However, to incorporate the ecosystem services framework into land management, decision‐makers need the tools to disentangle the effects of land use from other factors. This is a major challenge for ecosystem services research. Forestry is a widespread land use that has considerable potential to deliver a broad range of ecosystem services, although this requires careful management planning. Additionally, modern production forestry is undergoing a period of rapid change in the face of a plethora of challenges, such as climate change and disease. To increase cultural ecosystem services delivery from forests, managers need tools to understand the implications of different management options. In this paper, we directly test how land use affects cultural ecosystem services. We use a new approach that recognises the underlying complexity of cultural ecosystem services but produces easily interpretable results that are locally relevant and directly applicable to land management. By combining participatory geographic information systems (GIS) and a novel site matching technique, we relate cultural values explicitly to land management, while accounting for the influence of landscape features. Applying this new method to a major UK forest site, we conducted a large survey to gather participatory GIS data points. We showed that land management significantly affected cultural ecosystem service values and were able to make a series of practical forest management recommendations. Notably, a greater diversity of tree species would improve cultural value, and open space is important within the forest landscape. This approach is highly flexible and can be applied to any type of landscape. It allows cultural ecosystem services to be fully integrated into land management decisions to formulate the best management strategy to maximise ecosystem service delivery. A plain language summary is available for this article.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying cultural ecosystem services: Disentangling the effects of management from landscape features

2019

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“…The growing incidence of new invasive tree pest and disease introductions into the UK and elsewhere has been linked to globalization, increased trade and transportation of live plants and wood products, human movement and climate change (Liebhold et al 2012;Potter and Urquhart 2017). Evidence suggests such introductions are likely to have profound consequences for ecosystem services and human wellbeing (Boyd et al 2013;Freer-Smith and Webber 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Awareness, concern and willingness to adopt biosecure behaviours: public perceptions of invasive tree pests and pathogens in the UK

et al. 2017

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The growing incidence of invasive tree pest and disease outbreaks is recognised as an increasing threat to ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Linked to global trade, human movement and climate change, a number of outbreaks have attracted high public and media attention. However, there is surprisingly little evidence characterising the nature of public attentiveness to these events, nor how publics might respond to evolving outbreaks and the management actions taken. This paper presents findings from an online questionnaire involving 1334 respondents nationally-representative of the British public to assess awareness, concern and willingness to adopt biosecure behaviours. Despite revealing low levels of awareness and knowledge, the results indicate that the British public is concerned about the health of trees, forests and woodlands and is moderately willing to adopt biosecure behaviours. A key finding is that membership of environmental organisations and strong place identity are likely to engender higher awareness and levels of concern about tree pests and diseases. Further, those who visit woodlands regularly are likely to be more aware than non-visitors, and gardeners are more likely to be concerned than non-gardeners. Women, older respondents, those with strong place identity and dependence, members of environmental organisations, woodland visitors and gardeners were most likely to express a willingness to adopt biosecure behaviours. A comparison with findings from a survey conducted by the authors 3 years previously shows a decline over time in awareness, concern and willingness.

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“…For many tree pests and diseases, there is uncertainty about the likelihood of introduction and spread but also about the effectiveness of any attempts to control, manage or contain an outbreak once it is underway (Potter and Urquhart, 2017, Brasier, 2008). Furthermore, scientific understanding is often assembled incrementally as outbreaks unfold, making effective management and control very difficult to plan, justify and implement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent decades there has been a dramatic increase in new tree pest and disease epidemics, a development closely linked to globalization, trade in plant material and wood packaging and human-induced climate change (Potter and Urquhart, 2017). The technical process of identifying the risks associated with new and emerging tree and plant pests – a Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) – is used to determine appropriate phytosanitary measures and assess the likely biological, economic and social impacts of the outbreak (FAO, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expert risk perceptions and the social amplification of risk: A case study in invasive tree pests and diseases

Urquhart

Potter

Barnett

et al. 2017

Environmental Science & Policy

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HighlightsExpert risk perceptions are socially-mediated, relational and incremental.Challenges experts’ ‘real’ risk around which public perceptions are amplified.Tree health risks characterised by uncertainty and conflicts about what is at risk.Experts attribute concern to publics as they assemble risk judgments.Risk managers deal with the ‘risk event’ alongside ‘the social construction of risk’.

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Tree disease and pest epidemics in the Anthropocene: A review of the drivers, impacts and policy responses in the UK

Abstract: The growing incidence of new tree pest and disease epidemics, many of them with the potential to radically reshape our native woodlands and forests, is closely linked to a significant upsurge in global trade and transportation in recent decades.

Cited by 48 publications

References 29 publications

Quantifying cultural ecosystem services: Disentangling the effects of management from landscape features

Quantifying cultural ecosystem services: Disentangling the effects of management from landscape features

Awareness, concern and willingness to adopt biosecure behaviours: public perceptions of invasive tree pests and pathogens in the UK

Expert risk perceptions and the social amplification of risk: A case study in invasive tree pests and diseases

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