[HN Gopher] New studies gauge impact and cause of beech leaf dis...
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New studies gauge impact and cause of beech leaf disease
Author : mhb
Score : 25 points
Date : 2023-08-04 19:48 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.science.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
| notacoward wrote:
| We lost seven beeches - most of the big trees in our front yard -
| to beech leaf disease. Talked to one guy who pointed out that
| there is a treatment, but it's experimental and it's not even
| clear it works. $2000 per tree _per two years_ for a "maybe" was
| just too much. Plus, the longer we kept the trees, the more
| likely it would become that the culprit nematode would spread to
| other trees in our back yard or our neighbors'. Very sad, but the
| silver lining is that we're now a better candidate for solar.
| rindalir wrote:
| How long did it take between when you first noticed something
| and the decision to try to treat and then remove?
| soligern wrote:
| Lost the chestnuts, in the process of losing ash and now beech.
| It's pretty sad but it sounds like soon we may have no native
| North American species left.
| whicks wrote:
| Don't forget the eastern hemlock, which is being decimated by
| the hemlock woolly adelgid:
|
| > The adelgid has spread very rapidly in southern parts of the
| range once becoming established, while its expansion northward
| is much slower. Virtually all the hemlocks in the southern
| Appalachian Mountains have seen infestations of the insect
| within the last five to seven years, with thousands of hectares
| of stands dying within the last two to three years.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuga_canadensis#Hemlock_wooll...
| simonsarris wrote:
| And elms. Lots of US cities had streets completely lined with
| elm trees that were never replaced.
|
| > [starting in 1928] The disease spread from New England
| westward and southward, almost completely destroying the famous
| elms in the "Elm City" of New Haven, Connecticut, reaching the
| Detroit area in 1950, the Chicago area by 1960, and Minneapolis
| by 1970. Of the estimated 77 million elms in North America in
| 1930, over 75% had been lost by 1989.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_elm_disease
| zdragnar wrote:
| Oak wilt is pretty bad around here too, though fortunately
| not so bad as dutch elm disease yet.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| No mention if it affects _fagus sylvatica_ (European Beech)?
| hammock wrote:
| It started on Japanese Beech (but only causing mild symptoms).
| It affects a lot of beech
| nequo wrote:
| This Wikipedia article says that it does:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_leaf_disease
|
| It does not provide a source but this Massachusetts government
| website that is linked in the Wikipedia article also says that
| European beech is affected too:
|
| https://www.mass.gov/guides/beech-leaf-disease-in-massachuse...
| chmaynard wrote:
| I can confirm the spread of this disease in southern Rhode
| Island. My 1.5 acre lot has a magnificent stand of several very
| large beech trees and a number of smaller ones -- perhaps 50
| trees in all. Beginning in 2022, all of them have been affected
| by this disease. The canopy in that area is effectively gone.
| whicks wrote:
| For reference, this article is from November 2021.
| rindalir wrote:
| In most forests in the New England and New York State areas that
| I am familiar with, it's actually nearly impossible to find
| healthy beech trees, and has been for decades. Beech bark disease
| kills mature trees over a period of years, and what's left is
| either smaller trees with significant scarring or thickets of
| sprouts (which we used to call "beech hell" since they are super
| annoying to traverse when doing field work). There are some beech
| bark disease resistant individuals and populations, as well as
| some isolated patches of forest where there are healthy beeches
| (and they are... magnificent). I haven't really kept up with the
| literature on beech _leaf_ disease, but it leaves me wondering if
| this will potentially fully remove the unhealthy beeches. It
| would be interesting, in the long-term (is there a long term
| anymore?), if there are doubly-resistant individuals and if
| someday they may once again make beech a major forest component.
|
| It's hard to watch beloved tree species disappear. It's very
| hard. I love these forests so much. But something I have seen
| time and time again -- is that life is resilient, and it's not
| like a barren wasteland takes over (at least here). I try to
| think what amazing solutions life will cook up next.
|
| My background: I studied beech bark disease in Eastern NA forests
| back in the early 2000s, mostly working on modeling populations
| and the evolution of resistance.
| biorach wrote:
| Do you know if either of these diseases affect European Beech?
| rindalir wrote:
| Yeah, beech bark disease was actually introduced from Europe,
| to Halifax in the late 1800's. (well, i should say, the
| insect part was. The mechanism is that the scale insect
| creates an opening for the native-to-North America fungi in
| the Nectria genus to infect the bark). So the disease has
| been around in Europe (with local Nectria infecting) for much
| longer and my understanding was that European beech has
| better defenses and was more resistant, thought not entirely
| unaffected.
|
| Not super up on the leaf disease, but it does appear that
| European beech can be as well.
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(page generated 2023-08-04 23:00 UTC)