Collateral damage: fire and Phytophthora ramorum interact to increase mortality in coast redwood

Abstract

Invading species can alter ecosystems by impacting the frequency, severity, and consequences of endemic disturbance regimes (Mack and D'Antonio 1998). Phytophthora ramorum, the causal agent of the emergent disease sudden oak death (SOD), is an invasive pathogen causing widespread tree mortality in coastal forests of California and Oregon. In the absence of the pathogen, species composition in these forests is shaped by a number of biotic and abiotic factors, including wildfire. Large wildfires in California in 2008 provided an opportunity to test the interactions between P. ramorum and wildfire and their separate or joint impacts on forest composition. Here we ask whether the interacting effects of P. ramorum and wildfire on three dominant species in redwood forests were predictable from effects of either disturbance alone or whether there were synergies that occurred where both disturbances were present.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the sudden oak death fifth science symposium

Citation

Metz, Margaret R.; Varner, J. Morgan; Frangioso, Kerri M.; Meentemeyer, Ross K.; Rizzo, David M. 2013. Collateral damage: fire and Phytophthora ramorum interact to increase mortality in coast redwood. In: Frankel, S.J.; Kliejunas, J.T.; Palmieri, K.M.; Alexander, J.M. tech. coords. Proceedings of the sudden oak death fifth science symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-243. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station: 65-66.