The ohia dieback problem in Hawaii: a proposal for integrated research

Author:

Mueller-Dombois, D.

Title:

The ohia dieback problem in Hawaii: a proposal for integrated research

Year:

1974

Pages:

20 pp.

Subject:

Ohia dieback Hawaii Island Metrosideros polymorpha Ohia-lehua

Summary:

The ohia (Metrosideros collina subsp. polymorpha) is the most widely distributed and abundant native tree species in the Hawaiian Islands. Research that was done in Hawaii of the ohia forest dieback was reviewed, and a program was developed, to verify or reject the hypothesis that the "ohia dieback" or "ohia decline" problem is a natural phenomenon of primary succession rather than a pathological disease problem as is pursued by the current ohia dieback research of other institutions. Based on aerial photographic analysis that was done by the Hawaii State Division of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service, a prediction was made that the ohia forest would be wiped out by 1985. As a result, a proposal was made for a program, to be carried out primarily by graduate student dissertation research, that would consist of subprojects as follows: to determine the percentage of coverage of defoliated crowns in the ohia rain forest by remote sensing techniques and to develop a monitoring program, to develop a large scale vegetation map on the basis of structural criteria, to carry out a detailed floristic sampling by many small sample plots and to study, by structural analyses techniques, the dynamic trends of the woody species populations in a few large-sample plots, to map and study the substrate variations in terms of soil nutrient and soil water regimes that would develop a habitat classification for watershed purposes, and to study, by experimental procedures in the field and in a glasshouse, the response of ohia trees and seedlings to irrigation treatments with natural seepage water from dieback areas.

URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10125/826

Date:

July 22, 1974

Collection:

Monographs