Abstract
The plantations for wood production in agroforestry are the main supply for the wood industries. In the meanwhile, the rapid growth of these woody trees assures a quick carbon sequestration from the atmosphere and plays an important ecological role as well. The most common woody plants used in Italy for agroforestry plantations are poplar in the whole peninsula, eucalyptus in the South and, sporadically, Douglas fir and pines. Coppice chestnut plantations should also be considered for their rapid growth. Plant pathogens are able to decrease both the quality and the quantity of wood production drawing on the productivity and standard quality. In this paper, leaf pathogens able to reduce wood productivity, rot root and wilt agents able to kill trees are considered together with butt rot and cankers agents, these last ones able to reduce the wood quality. Regarding to poplar, Marssonina, Venturia, Melampsora, brown spots and Discosporium populeum are considered. The reported data about the losses of value merchandise and the decreases of carbon dioxide sequestration show how pathogens, reducing the photosynthetic efficiency, can also play an important ecological role. The aim of this paper is to point out the ecological value of plant diseases, besides their typical economical evaluation.
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