Metla Project 8207
Effect of water and nutrient stress on pine susceptibility to various pest and disease guilds
Duration: 1997-2001
Keywords: C/N ratio, nutrient, pest performance, pine, risk indicators, secondary metabolites, stress, tree growth, tree resistance, water
Objectives
The main objective of the project (FAIR3-CT96-1854) is to increase the knowledge on the relationships between trees under stress and pests. The aim is to build synthetic conclusions forming a coherent frame leading to define indicators for pest and disease risk in forest stands, applicable in the context of environmental changes and able to be used by forest managers.
Three intermediate objectives are proposed: 1) To assess, in a diversity of pine-pest and pine-disease models, the validity of the plant stress - pest performance hypothesis that suggests that plants under abiotic stress become more susceptible to pests and diseases; 2) To understand how water and nutrient stress may influence tree health, by determining their consequences for pine susceptibility to biotic aggressions; and 3) To identify the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of interaction between abiotic stress and susceptibility to insects and pathogens.
Specific objectives to be met in order to achieve the general objectives defined above are: 1) To determine effects of water and nutrient stress on damage and parasite performances; 2) To determine how mechanisms of natural resistance are modified, with a special focus on secondary metabolism, in relation to the stress induced physiological status of the trees; 3) To determine the relations between modifications in C/N ratio and modifications in tree resistance parameters; and 4) To define tresholds of stress needed to induce virulence in latent parasites.
Project leader:
Kytö, Maarit
The Finnish Forest Research Institute,
Vantaa Unit,
PL 18, FI-01301 VANTAA, FINLAND
Phone: +358 29 532 2471
E-mail: maarit.kyto@metla.fi
Other researchers:
Annila, Erkki (1997-98)
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Updated 12.06.2012
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