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Diplodia sapinea is colonizing the native Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in the northern Baltics

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Abstract

For the northern Baltic region, Diplodia sapinea (Fr.) Fuckel, a well-known around the world pine pathogen, was first recorded in Estonia on Austrian pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) in 2007. Wider monitoring of the fungus was promptly started. Shortly, in 2012, the native Scots pine (P. sylvestris L.) was found symptomatic: first in Estonia, then in Latvia, and in 2013 in north-west Russia. Several individuals of exotic Mountain pine (P. mugo Turra) and some Bosnian pines (Pinus leucodermis Ant.) were also found to be infected. By the end of 2013, the front of the northward enlargement of the range of D. sapinea had reached to central Estonia. Early detection and continuous monitoring of this pathogen on native and introduced ornamental pine species will support forest and green belt management specialists with timely information, if an epidemic, as it occurred previously with the invasive Dothistroma needle blight, would emerge.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate the aid of persons who collaborated in collecting and analysing cone samples from Estonia and Latvia. The authors are thankful also to Dr. Dmitry Musolin (St. Petersburg State Forest Technical University) who assisted Rein Drenkhan during his field trip to north-western Russia in November 2013, and to professor Guntis Brūmelis (Riga, Latvia) for the language revision. The study was supported by the Estonian Environmental Investments Centre, the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009–2014 under the project EMP162, the Institutional Research Funding IUT21-04, by the JSC “Latvia’s State Forests” and ERDF project (No. L-KC-11-0004) “Methods and technologies for increasing forest capital value”.

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Adamson, K., Klavina, D., Drenkhan, R. et al. Diplodia sapinea is colonizing the native Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in the northern Baltics. Eur J Plant Pathol 143, 343–350 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-015-0686-8

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