Abstract
Fusarium circinatum is the causal agent of pine pitch canker disease (PPC), affecting Pinus species and other conifers (i.e., Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco.), forming resinous cankers on the main stem and branches and causing dieback in the terminal guide. This pathogen is spreading worldwide, causing economic losses by converting plantations into standing timber without any potential for future production. The disease was recently detected in Northern Spain in plantations of Pinus radiata and forest nurseries. The aim of the work reported here was to study the role of climatic and topographic variables, soil properties, and stand characteristics on PPC. For this purpose, we surveyed 50 pine stands in Cantabria and quantified the percentage of trees showing three symptoms in each stand: canker, defoliation, and dieback. We investigated the predictive power of 30 variables using generalized linear models and hierarchical partitioning. Both approaches yielded similar results. We found that the three symptoms correlated with different explanatory variables. In addition, more trees exhibited cankers in the proximity of the coast and the Basque Country. Additionally, our results showed that low canopy cover is related to a high level of the dieback symptom. Overall, this study highlights the important variables affecting the distribution of PPC in Cantabria.
Highlights
Pine pitch canker (PPC) disease is caused by the fungus Fusarium circinatum [1]
The disease was first reported in North Carolina (USA) [4], but since it was observed in California (USA) [5], Haiti [6], Chile [7], South Africa [8], Japan [9], Mexico [10], Korea [11], Uruguay [12], Colombia [13], and, more recently, Brazil [14]
The presence of the symptoms on trees was high across the study area and each of the symptoms was present in about 90% of the surveyed stands
Summary
Pine pitch canker (PPC) disease is caused by the fungus Fusarium circinatum [1] (Teleomorph= Giberella circinata), a regulated pathogen under the EU legislations [2]. Fusarium circinatum has been found to be pathogenic to over 60 pine species and to Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco.), both in native and non-native forests [3,19,20,21]. A native species to California (USA), Guadalupe, and Cedros Islands (Mexico), was introduced in the Basque Country (Spain) during the first half of the nineteenth century for commercial purposes because the climatic conditions are similar to its place of origin. This is the most common exotic conifer in northern Spain covering an area of 200,000 ha [23]
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