Collaborative Research: Distance- and Phylogeny-based Pathogen Transmission in Forest Communities

一些植物病原体在自然植物群落中引起破坏性流行病，但许多其他病原体的影响有限，甚至可以作为维持物种丰富的植物群落结构和多样性的重要媒介。 预测特定植物病原体的传播和影响取决于了解它可以感染的植物物种的范围以及景观中宿主物种的空间分布和丰度。 在这里，我们将工作在潮湿的热带森林的低地巴拿马和混合温带森林的中部海岸的加州，研究如何在森林中的植物物种的组成和空间格局影响疾病传播的潜力在高和低多样性的植物群落。 通过一系列交叉接种，我们将直接测量病原体在进化上密切相关或更远相关的宿主之间共享的潜力。 使用一个空间明确的流行病学模拟模型，我们将耦合这些经验估计的主机范围与已知的空间格局的树种在森林中的映射图，检查通过森林社区的病原体传播的可能性，不同的生活史和不同的主机宽度。 这项研究的结果将通知森林管理，植物病虫害检疫问题，并在自然群落中的植物-病原体相互作用的主机范围的重要性的基本理解。

Some plant pathogens cause destructive epidemics in natural plant communities, but many others have limited impacts, or can even act as important agents in maintaining structure and diversity in species-rich plant communities. Predicting the spread and impacts of a particular plant pathogen depends on understanding the range of plant species it can infect as well as the spatial arrangement and abundance of host species in the landscape. Here we will work in both the moist tropical forest of lowland Panama and the mixed temperate forest on the central coast of California to examine how the composition and spatial patterns of plant species in the forest affects the potential for disease spread in high- and low-diversity plant communities. Through a series of cross inoculations we will measure directly the potential for pathogens to be shared among hosts that are evolutionarily closely or more distantly related. Using a spatially-explicit epidemiological simulation model, we will couple these empirical estimates of host range with the known spatial pattern of tree species in mapped plots in the forests, to examine the likelihood of spread through forest communities of pathogens with different life histories and different host breadths. The results of this research will inform issues of forest management, plant pest quarantine, and a basic understanding of the importance of host range in plant-pathogen interactions in natural communities.