Ohia dieback in Hawaii: vegetation changes in permanent plots

Author:

Jacobi, James D., Gerrish, Grant, Mueller-Dombois, Dieter

Title:

Ohia dieback in Hawaii: vegetation changes in permanent plots

Periodical:

Pacific Science

Year:

1983

Volume:

37

Pages:

327-337

Subject:

Ohia-lehua diseases and pests Ohia dieback Hawaii Island Metrosideros polymorpha

Summary:

During the early 1970s, the terms ohia dieback and ohia forest decline were commonly used to describe the widespread death or defoliation of a dominant, canopy-forming tree species that is known as the Ohia (Metrosideros polymorpha Gaud., Myrtaceae), that exists in much of the native Hawaiian forest. The spread of this "epidemic decline" was discussed in 1975 when a study was done of an 80,000 ha area on the island of Hawaii that resulted from an analysis that was done via aerial photographs that were taken in 1954, 1965, and 1972. Through this study, it was discovered that approximately 50,000 ha of the native ohia forest on the island of Hawaii experienced a drastic reduction (dieback) of the tree canopy between 1954 and 1977. This created a great concern for the management of this native ecosystem, (which is both an important watershed and a habitat for numerous species of endangered plants and animals), and stimulated a great deal of research on the Hawaiian dieback phenomenon. As a result, the focus of this work was to better understand both the mechanism and consequences of ohia dieback. Therefore, the consequences that resulted from the ohia dieback is addressed in this paper, with an assessment that was done regarding the changes that occurred in the ohia population between 1954 and 1977. This was done from a series of study plots that were established across the major area of forest dieback on the island of Hawaii.

Label:

Botany - Ohia

URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/730

Date:

1983

Collection:

Periodicals