Tree-group death in North American and Hawaiian forests: a pathological problem or a new problem for vegetation ecology?

Author:

Mueller-Dombois, Dieter, Canfield, Joan E., Holt, R. Alan, Buelow, Gary P.

Title:

Tree-group death in North American and Hawaiian forests: a pathological problem or a new problem for vegetation ecology?

Periodical:

Phytocoenologia

Year:

1983

Volume:

11

Pages:

117-137

Subject:

Montane tropical forest Canopy dieback Forest ecology

Summary:

The massive dying of forest stands in the indigenous Hawaiian montane rain forest has interested forest managers, pathologists, and Hawaiian politicians since the 1970s as successive aerial photos indicated that an "epidemic death" of the native rain forest would occur in 15 to 25 years if the rate of damage in the forest continued at the current rate of the time. This document discusses a debate as to whether or not the Hawaiian tree dieback phenomenon is a normal event in population dynamics or if the dieback occurs as a result of a disease organism or an insect pest. Here, five North American tree diebacks or forest declines were reviewed that were recognized as "decline diseases" in a forest pathology text.

Label:

Ecology

Collection:

Periodicals