National Science Foundation - Trees turned to snags: 'Sudden Oak Death' fells California oaks in their prime .- Árboles recurrido a inconvenientes: 'muerte súbita del roble' derriba robles de California en su mejor momento

Hola amigos: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., la Fundación Nacional de Ciencias de Los Estados Unidos, están alarmados por la muerte súbita de árboles de roble en California.

NSF, nos dice: La muerte repentina del roble, tenga cuidado.
Ciencia Crowdsourced ayuda a predecir la trayectoria de la enfermedad de las plantas mortal, lo que demuestra los aportes ciudadanos científicos entrenados pueden hacer a los proyectos de localización geográfica a gran escala.
Esa es la conclusión de un estudio de monitoreo de la muerte repentina del roble en California. Los resultados se publican en la edición de este mes de la revista Frontiers in Ecology y el Medio Ambiente.

More information...........
http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=134947&WT.mc_id=USNSF_52&WT.mc_ev=click

Citizen scientists assist with research on infectious plant disease

This once-majestic coast live oak in Marin County, Calif., has succumbed to sudden oak death. Credit and Larger Version

May 1, 2015

The following is part 16 in a series on the NSF-NIH-USDA Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program. See parts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15.

Sudden oak death, beware.

Crowdsourced science is helping to predict the path of the deadly plant disease, demonstrating the contributions trained citizen scientists can make to large-scale geographic tracking projects.

That's the conclusion of a study of sudden oak death monitoring in California. The results are published in this month's issue of the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

Ebola of the plant world

"Sudden oak death is the Ebola of the plant world, the most serious threat to non-agricultural plants," says lead paper author Ross Meentemeyer, director of the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina (NC) State University.

The disease, which has killed millions of oak and tanoak trees in California and Oregon, can infect up to 60 landscape plant species and spread from nursery stock to residential landscapes.

Starting in 2008, University of California (UC), Berkeley, researchers expanded their sudden oak death monitoring efforts exponentially, thanks to observations from 1,600 trained volunteers who collected leaf samples from trees in metropolitan and urban wildland areas.

Citizen scientists often needed in research

"To answer many science questions, we need the efforts of a large number of people--and the general public can help," says Sam Scheiner, National Science Foundation (NSF) director for the NSF-NIH-USDA Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program, which funded the research.

"This study shows that asking local residents to report on the locations of outbreaks of sudden oak death can provide critical information. The result is a better understanding of the spread of this serious plant disease."

Adds Meentemeyer, "We were able to get data from backyards in the San Francisco Bay area, along with other locations.

"Those data were used to develop accurate computer models for the disease's spread, showing that properly trained and educated citizen scientists can collect data that's just as reliable as that of professionals."

Predictions allow for targeted treatments

Accurate predictions about sudden oak death's spread allow scientists to target treatments to the most vulnerable areas, says paper co-author and forest pathologist Matteo Garbelotto of UC Berkeley.

The annual Sudden Oak Death Blitz, which includes extensive publicity during peak periods for the disease, involves high-school students, homeowners, tree specialists, firefighters, teachers and others.

Follow-up evaluation showed that trained citizen scientists were as effective as experts in identifying and collecting diseased tree leaves, whether or not they reported having a professional background in science.

Additional authors of the paper are Monica Dorning and John Vogler of NC State and Douglas Schmidt of UC Berkeley.

--	Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
--	D'Lyn Ford, NCSU (919) 513-4798 dcford@ncsu.edu

Investigators David Rizzo
Ross Meentemeyer

Related Institutions/Organizations
University of California-Davis
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Related Awards #0622677 Collaborative Research: Sudden Oak Death: Feedback Between a Generalist Pathogen, Hosts, and Heterogeneous Environments at Multiple Spatial and Temporal Scales
#0622770 Collaborative Research: Sudden Oak Death: Feedback Between a Generalist Pathogen, Hosts, and Heterogeneous Environments at Multiple Spatial and Temporal Scales

Total Grants $1,649,209
Related WebsitesNSF Special Report: Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases:
 http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/ecoinf/
NSF News: Racing ahead of disease outbreaks: $12 million in new research grants:
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=132570&org=NSF&from=news


A hillside in Big Sur, Calif.,with many of its trees dead as a result of sudden oak death.
Credit and Larger Version

Thousands of oaks and tanoaks have been infected at the popular China Camp State Park, California.
Credit and Larger Version

California bay laurel infected with sudden oak death; bay leaves help spread the disease.
Credit and Larger Version

Spore produced by the pathogen, or disease-causing agent, of sudden oak death.
Credit and Larger Version

Young citizen scientists locating and collecting leaves with symptoms of
Credit and Larger Version
 The National Science Foundation(NSF)
 Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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