Infections of the American Chestnut Tree Essay

Laurel Wilt Disease is a scourge here in Florida. The disease affects laurel trees all over the Southeast, with the most notable victim being avocado trees. The beetles also effect sassafras trees, pond spice trees, and swamp bays. The main cause of this disease is a fungus known as Raffaelea Lauricola that is transmitted through a beetle called the red bay ambrosia beetle (Persea Borbonia). Neither of these species are native to the area. It was brought over to the states through wooden shipping containers that had contained the beetle insect. The insect and disease came from countries like India, Japan, Myanmar, and Taiwan. The disease works by having the beetle come into the country, hiding in the wooden crates. Once in America, the beetle enters into the environment and seeks trees to bore into for food and shelter. The beetles contain spores that containing the fungus that kills the host tree. The fungus then grows in the sapwood of the tree, restricting the flow of food, sap, and nutrients around the tree. This results in die back and eventually, a dead tree. The disease is known to highly effect the avocado industry and the natural forests in Florida. Currently, 61 out of 67 counties in Florida contain reports of Laurel Wilt Disease as of 2015. That is an enormous 91%.

Boxelder Maple trees depend on the dispersal of their samaras to reproduce. The samaras are the seeds of the tree that are shaped in such a way that the wing of the seed causing it to spin. The seed does not fall directly but instead twirls like a helicopter making it stay in the air longer. With the wind the seed can then me dispersed away from the parent tree to take rout and grow on its own. Not all seeds float away from the parent seed and take rout. Some end up falling to close to the parent tree not allowing them to survive due to not getting nutrients and sunlight. “Recent field studies have made progress in elucidating the mechanisms behind these patterns and the implications of these patterns for recruitment success”

Albino redwoods and fungi share similarities, while also differing in some traits. When it comes to the structure of both plants, albino redwoods have green and yellowish needles, a combination of normal and albino tissues, and male and female cones (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140319-redwood-albino-chimera-california-tree-tallest/), while fungi have vegetative tissues (hyphae and mycelium), reproductive bodies/structures and spores. Both fungi and albino redwoods do not contain chlorophyll, so they are dependent on other living organisms to provide them with nutrients. Fungi are described as either decomposers or saprotrophs, while albino redwoods are parasites. Albino redwoods act as parasites by stealing nutrients from

The experiment was conducted in Sheboygan County at three locations of varying distance from Lake Michigan, where they were surveyed for the occurrence of the invasive tree species black locust. The first location, Kettle Moraine State Park, is located 20 miles inland west of Lake Michigan. As its name suggests, this location has a combination of kettles and moraines. Kettles are steep side impressions in a landscape while moraines are linear deposits that accumulated at the edge of an ice sheet. This creates a rolling hill landscape that can create quite the diversity of vegetation. This site was dominated by mostly sugar maple with the occasional red oak and birch. There was very little ground coverage, due to the dense shade cast by the

Research by Su et al. (1996) revealed that different hardwood content in stands influences balsam fir defoliation and mortality caused by spruce budworm. Defoliation and mortality are less in stand with high hardwood content than in stands with low hardwoods (MacLean 1980; Bergeron et al. 1995; Su et al. 1996). This results in higher canopy openness in stands with high conifer content than in high hardwood content

Forests are carbon sinks, they absorb carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it in plant biomass and soils belowground. When the trees die, they stop absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, and as they decompose, they release some of the stored carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere (Suzuki & Moola, 2008). The mountain pine beetle (Aendroctonus ponderosae) is a primary agent of forest disturbance, a higher number of outbreaks occur due to favorable forest age and climate patterns (Progar et al., 2014). The mountain pine beetle (MPB) starts its attack when the female finds a pine tree (usually lodgepole) that is at least 80 years old. Upon finding the tree the female bores into it, while releasing a pheromone that attracts the male beetles. When the males arrive they, also release more pheromones to attract more females. The tree tries to defend its self by secreting a toxic resin. But the beetles carry spores of a blue-stain fungus in their mouths which they release as they bore into the tree, the fungus prevents the tree from transporting nutrients and water. The beetles lay eggs under the tree’s bark, and when the larvae hatch, they feed on the blue fungus until they are mature enough to leave the now dead tree (Aukema et al., 2006).

Over the last few decades in North America an insect has wreaked havoc on the coniferous trees that inhabit the Rocky Mountains. The insect known as the Mountain Pine Bark Beetle, or Dendroctonus ponderosae although once an important part of the cycle of life in the pines of the Rocky Mountains has recently grown out of control. Because of the beetles need to live inside of trees, they have adapted the ability to fight against the trees defenses, but in doing so have endangered the trees by cutting off their source of moisture throughout the tree. The Mountain pine beetle has an interesting physiology that allows it to burrow into trees. This causes many

Pines in the forest of Morne des Commissaires is often distorted because of Loranthacee parasite. The parasite is endemic to Hispaniola, l’Arceuthobium bicarinatum Urb. (fig. 11). Even though the plant is being parasitized, it keeps its height and gives an excellent wood. Currently, the pines wood is being exploited in abundance for the need of the “Shada” war (society Haitian-American of agriculture

The Emerald Ash Borer is a phloem-feeding beetle that is native to Asia and has been increasing its presence in the US. The beetle is invasive, harmful to native ash trees, and has the ability to spread (Kovacs et al., 2010). The invasive beetles cause destruction to ash trees in a gradual process, that usually lasts three years. The beetles initiate the attack along the upper trunk and bases of main branches and then work their way down (Winners, 2002). The adult beetles lay eggs on the ash tree’s bark and when they hatch, the larvae bore into the bark and feed on the transportation tissues of the tree (NCFS, 2016). This causes disruption of the movement of nutrients and water within the tree. Since the bug resides and lays eggs within the tree’s bark, they are hard to recognize until the

What is ‘Myrtle Rust’ and how pernicious is it? Myrtle Rust, aka Uredo rangelii, is a fungal plant pathogen native to South America that affects plants in Myrtaceae family, such as Tea tree, Beach Cherry and Bottle Brush (DAFF, 2012). Its advent can be witnessed in the form of small purple flecks and leaf spots on young leaves. It then utilizes its vicious powers to create tiny, raised spots or pustules, which turn powdery distinctive yellow after a few days. It attacks young and new plants and causes them to be stunted, leaves to be twisted and even leads to their death. While the South American trees have some resistance against this aggressor, the Australian ones are more vulnerable. It has the potential to affect up to 80 per cent of Australian native trees and the crusade cannot be stopped once it has occupied the bush lands (NSW Scientific

In the search for new biofuels, research has been done into the digestion of wood waste by fungi.

The Asian longhorned beetle has a major impact on our tree’s. The beetle has the potential to destroy the lumber and maple syrup industry. If maple trees get infected, they will all die and we will no longer collect sap from them. The Asian longhorned beetles make holes in trees one and a half to two centimeters in diameter. Some host trees for the Asian longhorned beetle include Elm trees, Willow trees, Maple trees, and Birch trees. Since the Asian longhorned beetle does not feed on animals, tree’s are the only victim. If the Asian longhorned beetle kill out all the maple tree’s, our $100 million maple syrup industry will be gone. The impacts of the Asian longhorned beetle are very serious, but we can

In the 1900's, the Chinese chestnut introduced a blight that was fatal to the American chestnuts. Those grand old trees disappeared from our forests and landscapes. While everyone decried their loss, few believed anything would bring the tree back. Thank God for those few stubborn believers!

This paper was about the bidirectional anatomical effects of mistletoe-host the sweet gum tree (L. styraciflua) and the Mexican royal oak (Q. germana). The main reason that the researchers wanted to do this study was because while multiple studies have been completed on how a parasite effects the host little has been done to study the effect of the host on the parasite. The researchers used standard techniques for light and transmission electron microscopes to study the effect of mistletoe on the sweet gum tree and the Mexican royal oak and vice versa. The key results for this paper were as follows, the

Pinewood nematode is transmitted from tree to tree by pine sawyer beetles which overwinter as larvae in dead pines or pine logs which still have the bark attached. After pupating, the adult pine sawyer beetles, carrying nematodes in their tracheae, fly to healthy host pine trees where the nematodes enter through feeding wounds. Pinewood nematodes migrate to resin canals where they feed and rapidly reproduce. The resin canal system is damaged and water movement in the tree is disrupted. Once the pine tree dies the nematodes continue to feed and reproduce on blue stain fungus which infects the tree. In summer, female pine sawyer beetles carry nematodes as they fly back to dead pine wood where they lay their eggs. Eggs