Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Forest community structure and composition following containment treatments for the fungal pathogen oak wilt

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biological Invasions Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In temperate oak forests in Ohio, USA, we examined variability in forest communities within containment treatment sites for oak wilt (Bretziella fagacearum), a fungal pathogen lethal to susceptible oak species. Containment treatments included quarantine lines in soil for limiting belowground fungal spread and sanitation cutting of 1–3 mature black oak (Quercus velutina) trees within oak wilt infection patches. At 28 sites, we compared tree structure and understory plant communities across a gradient of 1- to 6-year-old treatments and reference forest (untreated and without evidence of oak wilt). While oak seedlings were abundant, oak saplings (1–10 cm in diameter) were absent. In contrast, many native understory plant community measures were highest in oak wilt treatments. Plant species richness 100 m−2 doubled in treatments, regardless of age, compared with reference forest. Plant cover increased with treatment age, with 6-year-old treatments exhibiting 5 × more cover than reference forest. Non-native plants averaged only a small proportion (< 0.12) of cover across treatments and reference forest. Variability in understory communities was mostly predictable using treatment age, tree canopy cover, and geographic location, as 20 of 25 understory measures had at least 72% of their variance modeled. While oak wilt treatments did not facilitate oak regeneration nor many conservation-priority species of open savanna-woodland habitats, the treatments did diversify and increase cover of native understory communities with minimal invasion of non-native plants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abella SR (2018) Forest decline after a 15-year “perfect storm” of invasion by hemlock woolly adelgid, drought, and hurricanes. Biol Invasions 20:695–707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abella SR, Hausman CE, Jaeger JF, Menard KS, Schetter TA, Rocha OJ (2019) Fourteen years of swamp forest change from the onset, during, and after invasion of emerald ash borer. Biol Invasions 21:3685–3696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abella SR, Hodel JL, Schetter TA (2020a) Unusually high-quality soil seed banks in a Midwestern U.S. oak savanna region: variation with land use history, habitat restoration, and soil properties. Restor Ecol 28:1100–1112

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abella SR, Menard KS, Schetter TA, Gallaher TD (2020b) Changes in trees, groundlayer diversity, and deer-preferred plants across 18 years in oak (Quercus, Fagaceae) forests of northwestern Ohio. J Torrey Bot Soc 147:209–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abella SR, Menard KS, Schetter TA, Sprow LA, Jaeger JF (2020c) Rapid and transient changes during 20 years of restoration management in savanna-woodland-prairie habitats threatened by woody plant encroachment. Plant Ecol 221:1201–1217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abrams MD (2003) Where has all the white oak gone? Bioscience 10:927–939

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson MJ (2001) A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecol 26:32–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Andreas BK, Mack JJ, McCormac JS (2004) Floristic quality assessment index (FQAI) for vascular plants and mosses for the State of Ohio. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Wetland Ecology Group, Columbus, OH

    Google Scholar 

  • Arduser M (2010) Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of the Kitty Todd Preserve, Lucas County, Ohio. Great Lakes Entomol 43:45–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer LG, Vankat JL (2004) Description of vegetation of the Oak Openings of northwestern Ohio at the time of Euro-American settlement. Ohio J Sci 104:76–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruhn JN, Heyd RL (1992) Biology and control of oak wilt in Michigan red oak stands. North J Appl for 9:47–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cale JA, Garrison-Johnston MT, Teale SA, Castello JD (2017) Beech bark disease in North America: over a century of research revisited. For Ecol Manage 394:86–103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collada AE, Haney A (1998) Effect of oak wilt on vegetation of oak barrens. Trans Wisconsin Acad Sci, Arts, Lett 86:35–45

    Google Scholar 

  • Dufrêne M, Legendre P (1997) Species assemblages and indicator species: the need for a flexible asymmetrical approach. Ecol Monogr 67:345–366

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunstan WA, Rudman T, Shearer BL, Moore NA, Paap T, Calver MC, Dell B, St J, Hardy GE (2010) Containment and spot eradication of a highly destructive, invasive plant pathogen (Phytophthora cinnamomi) in natural ecosystems. Biol Invasions 12:913–925

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenfeld JG (1980) Understory response to canopy gaps of varying size in a mature oak forest. Bull Torrey Bot Club 107:29–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, JN, French DW (1980) The transmission of oak wilt. Research Paper NC-185. US Dept Agric, For Serv, North Central For Exp Stn, St. Paul, MN

  • Goldblum D (1997) The effects of treefall gaps on understory vegetation in New York State. J Veg Sci 8:125–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granger JJ, Buckley DS, Sharik TL, Zobel JM, DeBord WW, Hartman JP, Henning JG, Keyser TL, Marshall JM (2018) Northern red oak regeneration: 25-year results of cutting and prescribed fire in Michigan oak and pine stands. For Ecol Manage 429:467–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammer Ø (2020) PAST 4.02, paleontological statistics. University of Oslo, Norway

    Google Scholar 

  • Haywood JD (1994) Seed viability of selected tree, shrub, and vine species stored in the field. New for 8:143–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heitzman E, Stephens J (2006) Using group selection to regenerate oaks in northern Arkansas. In: Connor KF (ed) Proceedings of the 13th biennial southern silvicultural research conference. Gen Tech Rep SRS-92. US Dept Agric, For Serv, Southern Res Stn, Asheville, NC, pp 547–550

  • Honu YAK, Gibson DJ (2008) Patterns of invasion: trends in abundance of understory vegetation, seed rain, and seed bank from forest edge to interior. Nat Areas J 28:228–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horsley SB, Stout SL, deCalesta DS (2003) White-tailed deer impact on the vegetation dynamics of a northern hardwood forest. Ecol Appl 13:98–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inouye RS, Huntly NJ, Tilman D, Tester JR, Stillwell M, Zinnel KC (1987) Old-field succession on a Minnesota sand plain. Ecology 68:12–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iverson LR, Hutchinson TF, Peters MP, Yaussy DA (2017) Long-term response of oak-hickory regeneration to partial harvest and repeated fires: influence of light and moisture. Ecosphere 8:e01642

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacobi WR, MacDonald WL (1980) Colonization of resistant and susceptible oaks by Ceratocystis fagacearum. Phytopathology 70:618–623

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaeger BC, Edwards LJ, Das K, Sen PK (2017) An R2 statistic for fixed effects in the generalized linear mixed model. J Appl Stat 44:1086–1105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins MA, Parker GR (1998) Composition and diversity of woody vegetation in silvicultural openings of southern Indiana forests. For Ecol Manage 109:57–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juzwik J, Harrington TC, MacDonald WL, Appel DN (2008) The origin of Ceratocystis fagacearum, the oak wilt fungus. Ann Rev Phytopath 46:13–26

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Juzwik J, O’Brien J, Evenson C, Castillo P, Mahal G (2010) Controlling spread of the oak wilt pathogen (Ceratocystis fagacearum) in a Minnesota urban forest park reserve. Arboriculture Urban for 36:171–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juzwik J, Appel DN, MacDonald WL, Burks S (2011) Challenges and successes in managing oak wilt in the United States. Plant Dis 95:888–900

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Juzwik J, Appel DN (2016) Oak wilt. Bergdahl AD, Hill A (tech coords) Diseases of trees in the Great Plains Gen Tech Rep RMRS-GTR-335. US Dept Agric, For Serv, Rocky Mountain Res Stn, Fort Collins, CO, pp 129–133

    Google Scholar 

  • Koch KA, Quiram GL, Venette RC (2010) A review of oak wilt management: a summary of treatment options. Urban for Urban Greening 9:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy-Varon JH, Schuster WSF, Griffin KL (2014) Rapid rebound of soil respiration following partial stand disturbance by tree girdling in a temperate deciduous forest. Oecologia 174:1415–1424

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lhotka JM, Cunningham RA, Stringer JW (2018) Effect of silvicultural gap size on 51 year species recruitment, growth and volume yields in Quercus dominated stands of the northern Cumberland Plateau, USA. Forestry 91:451–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liebhold AM, Brockerhoff EG, Kalisz S, Nuñez MA, Wardle DA, Wingfield MJ (2017) Biological invasions in forest ecosystems. Biol Invasions 19:3437–3458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loo JA (2009) Ecological impacts of non-indigenous invasive fungi as forest pathogens. Biol Invasions 11:81–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorimer CG, Chapman JW, Lambert WD (1994) Tall understorey vegetation as a factor in the poor development of oak seedlings beneath mature stands. J Ecol 82:227–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mack JJ (2009) Development issues in extending plant-based IBIs to forested wetlands in the Midwestern United States. Wetlands Ecol Manage 17:117–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCune B, Mefford MJ (1999) PC-ORD: multivariate analysis of ecological data. User’s guide, MjM Software Design, Gleneden Beach, OR

    Google Scholar 

  • Menges ES, Kuntz JE (1985) Predictive equations for local spread of oak wilt in southern Wisconsin. For Sci 31:43–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Meunier J, Bronson DR, Scanlon K, Gray RH (2019) Effects of oak wilt (Bretziella fagacearum) on post harvest Quercus regeneration. For Ecol Manage 432:575–581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Natural Resources Conservation Service (2020) The PLANTS database. https://plantsusda.gov. Accessed 20 Oct 2020

  • Pavlovic NB, Grundel R, Sluis W (2006) Groundlayer vegetation gradients across oak woodland canopy gaps. J Torrey Bot Soc 133:225–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedlar JH, McKenney DW, Hope E, Reed S, Sweeney J (2020) Assessing the climate suitability and potential economic impacts of oak wilt in Canada. Sci Repts 10:19391

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pellegrini AFA, Hein AH, Cavender-Bares J, Montgomery RA, Staver AC, Silla F, Hobbie SE, Reich PB (2021) Disease and fire interact to influence transitions between savanna-forest ecosystems over a multi-decadal experiment. Ecol Lett 24:1007–1017

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts M, Gilligan CA, Kleczkowski A, Hanley N, Whalley AE, Healey JR (2020) The effect of forest management options on forest resilience to pathogens. Front Forests Global Change 3:7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudolph VJ, Lemmien WA (1976) Silvicultural cuttings in an oak-hickory stand in Michigan: 21-year results. In: Fralish JS (ed) Proceedings of the first central hardwood forest conference. US Dept Agric, For Serv, North Central For Exp Stn, St. Paul, MN, pp 431–453

  • Schetter TA, Walters TL, Root KV (2013) A multi-scale spatial analysis of native and exotic plant species richness within a mixed-disturbance oak savanna landscape. Environ Manage 52:581–594

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shure DJ, Phillips DL, Bostick PE (2006) Gap size and succession in cutover southern Appalachian forests: an 18 year study of vegetation dynamics. Plant Ecol 185:299–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spetich MA (2020) Survival of Quercus alba (white oak) advance reproduction in small group and single tree openings. Forests 11:889

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stone KL, McConoughey EH, Bottrell GD, Crowner DJ (1980) Soil Survey of Lucas County. Ohio, US Soil Conserv Serv, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Tryon EH, Martin JP, MacDonald WL (1983) Natural regeneration in oak wilt centers. For Ecol Manage 7:149–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Valachovic Y, Twieg B, Lee C, Cobb R, Stark D (2017) Forest stand conditions after Phytophthora ramorum management in northern California: post-treatment observations inform future responses. For Phytophthoras 7:54–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verburg RW, During HJ (1998) Vegetative propagation and sexual reproduction in the woodland understorey pseudo-annual Circaea lutetiana L. Plant Ecol 134:211–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wardle DA, Peltzer DA (2017) Impacts of invasive biota in forest ecosystems in an aboveground-belowground context. Biol Invasions 19:3301–3316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Widen MJ, Petras O’Neil MA, Dickinson YL, Webster CR (2018) Rubus persistence within silvicultural openings and its impact on regeneration: the influence of opening size and advance regeneration. For Ecol Manage 427:162–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson AD (2005) Recent advances in the control of oak wilt in the United States. Plant Path J 4:177–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wingfield MJ, Slippers B, Wingfield BD, Barnes I (2017) The unified framework for biological invasions: a forest fungal pathogen perspective. Biol Invasions 19:3201–3214

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Metroparks Toledo for funding through a contract to Natural Resource Conservation LLC; J. Diver, J. Weidner, D. Unverferth, and staff with Metroparks Toledo for implementing oak wilt treatments; J. Brenwell for GIS support; and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.

Funding

Metroparks Toledo.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, 89154-4004, USA

    Scott R. Abella

  2. Natural Resource Conservation LLC, 1400 Colorado Street, Boulder City, NV, 89005, USA

    Scott R. Abella

  3. Metroparks Toledo, 5100 West Central Avenue, Toledo, OH, 43615, USA

    LaRae A. Sprow & Timothy A. Schetter

  4. Hart Crowser, Inc, 6420 South Macadam Avenue, Portland, OR, 97239, USA

    Timothy W. Walters

Authors
  1. Scott R. Abella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. LaRae A. Sprow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Timothy W. Walters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Timothy A. Schetter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott R. Abella.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 465 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Abella, S.R., Sprow, L.A., Walters, T.W. et al. Forest community structure and composition following containment treatments for the fungal pathogen oak wilt. Biol Invasions 23, 3733–3747 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02612-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02612-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation