Forewarned is forearmed : harmonized approaches for early detection of potentially invasive pests and pathogens in sentinel plantings

This work was supported by COST Action Global Warning (FP1401). DLM and YB contribution was also supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 17-04-01486). MG was supported by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Grant III43002. MKA was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland. NK was supported by Le Studium foundation (France) and RFBR (Grant No. 19-04-01029). RE, IF and MK contribution was also supported by CABI with core financial support from its member countries (see http://www.cabi.org/about-cabi/who-we-work-with/key-donors/ for details). IF contribution was further supported through a grant from the Swiss State Secretariat for Science, Education and Research (Grant C15.0081, awarded to RE).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Climate, host and geography shape insect and fungal communities of trees.

Non-native pests, climate change, and their interactions are likely to alter relationships between trees and tree-associated organisms with consequences for forest health. To understand and predict such changes, factors structuring tree-associated communities need to be determined. Here, we analysed the data consisting of records of insects and fungi collected from dormant twigs from 155 tree species at 51 botanical gardens or arboreta in 32 countries. Generalized dissimilarity models revealed similar relative importance of studied climatic, host-related and geographic factors on differences in tree-associated communities. Mean annual temperature, phylogenetic distance between hosts and geographic distance between locations were the major drivers of dissimilarities. The increasing importance of high temperatures on differences in studied communities indicate that climate change could affect tree-associated organisms directly and indirectly through host range shifts. Insect and fungal communities were more similar between closely related vs. distant hosts suggesting that host range shifts may facilitate the emergence of new pests. Moreover, dissimilarities among tree-associated communities increased with geographic distance indicating that human-mediated transport may serve as a pathway of the introductions of new pests. The results of this study highlight the need to limit the establishment of tree pests and increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to changes in climate

Climate, host and geography shape insect and fungal communities of trees

13 Pág.Non-native pests, climate change, and their interactions are likely to alter relationships between trees and tree-associated organisms with consequences for forest health. To understand and predict such changes, factors structuring tree-associated communities need to be determined. Here, we analysed the data consisting of records of insects and fungi collected from dormant twigs from 155 tree species at 51 botanical gardens or arboreta in 32 countries. Generalized dissimilarity models revealed similar relative importance of studied climatic, host-related and geographic factors on differences in tree-associated communities. Mean annual temperature, phylogenetic distance between hosts and geographic distance between locations were the major drivers of dissimilarities. The increasing importance of high temperatures on differences in studied communities indicate that climate change could affect tree-associated organisms directly and indirectly through host range shifts. Insect and fungal communities were more similar between closely related vs. distant hosts suggesting that host range shifts may facilitate the emergence of new pests. Moreover, dissimilarities among tree-associated communities increased with geographic distance indicating that human-mediated transport may serve as a pathway of the introductions of new pests. The results of this study highlight the need to limit the establishment of tree pests and increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to changes in climate.We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (Project C15.0081) Grant 174644 and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment Grant 00.0418.PZ/P193-1077. This work was supported by COST Action “Global Warning” (FP1401). CABI is an international intergovernmental organisation, and R.E., M.K., H.L. and I.F. gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies) including the United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate General for International Cooperation), and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). See https://www.cabi.org/aboutcabi/who-we-work-with/key-donors/ for full details. M.B. and M.K.H. were financially supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (Project APVV-19-0116). H.B. would like to thank the botanist Jorge Capelo who helped with Myrtaceae identification and INIAV IP for supporting her contribution to this study. Contributions of M. de G. and B.P. were financed through Slovenian Research Agency (P4-0107) and by the Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food (Public Forestry Service). G.C, C.B.E. and A.F.M. were supported by OTKA 128008 research grant provided by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office. Contributions of K.A. and R.D. were supported by the Estonian Research Council grants PSG136 and PRG1615. M.J.J., C.L.M. and H.P.R. were financially supported by the 15. Juni Fonden (Grant 2017-N-123). P.B., B.G. and M.Ka. were financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland for the University of Agriculture in Krakow (SUB/040013-D019). C.N. was financially supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (Grant APVV-15-0531). N.K. was partially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant № 22-16-00075) [species identification] and the basic project of Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS (№ FWES-2021-0011) [data analysis]. R.OH. was supported by funding from DAERA, and assistance from David Craig, AFBI. T.P. thanks the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) for funding noting that this publication does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of DFFE or its employees. In preparing the publication, materials of the bioresource scientific collection of the CSBG SB RAS “Collections of living plants indoors and outdoors” USU_440534 (Novosibirsk, Russia) were used. M.Z. was financially supported by Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia (contract no. 451-03-47/2023-01/200197). We acknowledge the Genetic Diversity Centre (GDC) at ETH Zurich for providing computational infrastructure and acknowledge the contribution of McGill University and Génome Québec Innovation Center (Montréal, Quebec, Canada) for pair-end sequencing on Illumina MiSeq. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Climate, host and geography shape insect and fungal communities of trees

DATA AVAILABITY STATEMENT: The data used in this manuscript, as well as the detail methods on how they were collected and public repositories in which they are stored, are described in Franić et al.40. The raw paired-end Illumina sequencing reads of the ITS2 region are archived at the NCBI Sequence Read Archive under BioProject accession number PRJNA70814822. Assembled herbivorous insect COI sequences are deposited in GenBank database under accession numbers MW441337–MW441767.SUPPORTING INFORMATION: FILE S1: ModelsNon-native pests, climate change, and their interactions are likely to alter relationships between trees and tree-associated organisms with consequences for forest health. To understand and predict such changes, factors structuring tree-associated communities need to be determined. Here, we analysed the data consisting of records of insects and fungi collected from dormant twigs from 155 tree species at 51 botanical gardens or arboreta in 32 countries. Generalized dissimilarity models revealed similar relative importance of studied climatic, host-related and geographic factors on diferences in tree-associated communities. Mean annual temperature, phylogenetic distance between hosts and geographic distance between locations were the major drivers of dissimilarities. The increasing importance of high temperatures on differences in studied communities indicate that climate change could afect tree-associated organisms directly and indirectly through host range shifts. Insect and fungal communities were more similar between closely related vs. distant hosts suggesting that host range shifts may facilitate the emergence of new pests. Moreover, dissimilarities among tree-associated communities increased with geographic distance indicating that human-mediated transport may serve as a pathway of the introductions of new pests. The results of this study highlight the need to limit the establishment of tree pests and increase the resilience of forest ecosystems to changes in climate.https://www.nature.com/srep/Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI)SDG-13:Climate actionSDG-15:Life on lan

Ophiostomatoid Fungi Associated with the Ambrosia Beetle Platypus cylindrus in Cork Oak Forests in Tunisia

Cork oak (Quercus suber) is a unique species of the Western Mediterranean region and over the last decades it has been threatened by several pests and diseases. Amongst the main dangerous pests, the ambrosia beetle Platypus cylindrus (the oak pinhole borer) has a key role on the process of cork oak decline namely in Portugal, Morocco, and Algeria. However, in Tunisia, where cork oak forests cover around 90.000 ha of the territory, this insect continues to have a secondary pest status. As all ambrosia insects, P. cylindrus is able to establish symbiotic relationships with fungi and it is known as the vector of ophiostomatoid fungi, a group including primary tree pathogens. The aim of this study was to identify these beetle-associated fungi in Tunisian forests and to understand the contribution of this association in cork oak decline by comparing with the results from other countries. The present study was conducted in 2012 in ten cork oak forests in the western-north of Tunisia and focused on ophiostomatoid fungi associated with the cork oak pinhole borer. Twenty four isolates were grouped based on morphological identification, and five representative isolates were included in phylogenetic analyses based on sequence data of ITS and β-tubulin loci. The fungi were assigned to five species namely Raffaelea montetyi, R. canadensis, Ophiostoma sp., O. tsotsi and O. quercus, some of them were already reported in Portugal and Algeria to be associated with cork oak decline. All these species were identified and reported for the first time in Tunisia to be associated with P. cylindrus in cork oak trees and their role in the cork oak loss of vitality needs to be investigated

Ocorrência de

O sobreiro (Quercus suber) encontra-se distribuído pelo sudoeste da Europa (Portugal, Espanha, França e Itália) e no norte de África (Marrocos, Argélia e Tunísia). Diferentes pragas e doenças afetam esta árvore, com algumas diferenças regionais importantes. Por exemplo, o plátipo (P. cylindrus) é uma grande ameaça na Península Ibérica, mas não é uma praga relevante na Tunísia. Ao estudar a infestação do plátipo nos montados da Tunísia, foram capturados insetos dos géneros Xyleborus e Xyleborinus. A amostragem foi realizada em povoamentos de sobreiros no noroeste da Tunísia, em 2012 e em 2018. Foi selecionada uma árvore sintomática em cada povoamento, e os troncos foram colocados no laboratório. Os insetos Scolytinae emergentes desses troncos foram identificados pelos caracteres morfológicos e análise molecular. Utilizando as sequências parciais do gene mitocondrial Citocromo Oxidase I (COI) foi possível a identificação das espécies Xyleborus monographus e Xyleborinus sexesenii. Estes insetosambrosia já tinham sido descritos para a Tunísia, mas não associados ao sobreiro. Segundo o CABI, Q. suber não está listado como planta hospedeira de X. saxesenii, que é considerada uma espécie nativa da Tunísia. São necessários mais estudos sobre a bioecologia de X. monographus e X. sexesenii, uma vez que podem ser vetores de fungos patogénicos para o sobreiro. Embora se saiba que estes insetos atacam apenas árvores enfraquecidas, as alterações climáticas podem aumentar o seu potencial de causar danos económicos

Data from: Site- and tree-related factors affecting colonization of cork oaks Quercus suber L. by ambrosia beetles in Tunisia

Key message: Ambrosia beetles are emerging globally as important agents of tree death and decline. In this work, we observed highly variable attack intensity by ambrosia beetles in cork oak stands in Tunisia. A correlation between the proportion of infested trees and average temperature was found. Tree diameter and tree phytosanitary variables further contribute to the attack densities of ambrosia beetles. Results can be relevant for preventive measures aiming to conserve this natural forest heritage. Context: Cork oak woodlands comprise a unique Mediterranean ecosystem supporting rich biological diversity and providing multiple services. A decline of cork oak forests has been observed in several regions of the Mediterranean Basin in the last four decades, which can be related to climate change, novel biotic agents, and changes in management practices. The ambrosia beetles have been one of the major biotic agents associated with cork oak decline, mostly in the western Mediterranean. Aims: Assess the presence and attack densities of ambrosia beetles in cork oak Tunisian forests. Methods: A total of 15 sites located in North Western of Tunisia, comprising 729 sample trees were evaluated. Using generalized linear models, the presence and density of ambrosia beetles’ holes were related to tree and site variables. Variables related to climate, tree (dendrometric parameters, debarking intensity) and biotic agents were examined. Results: The proportion of trees attacked per site varied from 0 to 100%; in four sites it exceeded 50%. At the site level, the average temperature and tree diameter were the main variables explaining the proportion of attacked trees. Sites with warmer climates showed higher incidence of ambrosia beetles. At the tree level, the presence of attacks increased with tree diameter and concomitantly with intensity of debarking, as well as the presence of tree trunk cavities. Conclusion: The presence and density of insect attacks were related to tree diameter, area of debarking, and phytosanitary conditions. However, 19% of the trees attacked by ambrosia beetles had no signs of other biotic agents or decline. At the site level, attack rates increased with temperature and tree diameter. A warmer climate may change insect behavior from that of a non-agressive pest to that of an agressive bark beetle. Adaptive forest management practices are needed to reduce infestations

Forewarned is forearmed : harmonized approaches for early detection of potentially invasive pests and pathogens in sentinel plantings

The number of invasive alien pest and pathogen species affecting ecosystem functioning, human health and economies has increased dramatically over the last decades. Discoveries of invasive pests and pathogens previously unknown to science or with unknown host associations yet damaging on novel hosts highlights the necessity of developing novel tools to predict their appearance in hitherto naïve environments. The use of sentinel plant systems is a promising tool to improve the detection of pests and pathogens before introduction and to provide valuable information for the development of preventative measures to minimize economic or environmental impacts. Though sentinel plantings have been established and studied during the last decade, there still remains a great need for guidance on which tools and protocols to put into practice in order to make assessments accurate and reliable. The sampling and diagnostic protocols chosen should enable as much information as possible about potential damaging agents and species identification. Consistency and comparison of results are based on the adoption of common procedures for sampling design and sample processing. In this paper, we suggest harmonized procedures that should be used in sentinel planting surveys for effective sampling and identification of potential pests and pathogens. We also review the benefits and limitations of various diagnostic methods for early detection in sentinel systems, and the feasibility of the results obtained supporting National Plant Protection Organizations in pest and commodity risk analysis