“SMALL HOPE” AGAINST THE TRENDS – The unquiet woods [06Jul13]

There is a small hope that unique British races of the species—isolated from continental Europe 8,500 years ago—may prove unusually resistant to the blight.

During the 19th century, as global trade increased exponentially, so did the incidence of tree blights. In the early 20th century, after rich countries instituted biosecurity regimes, the growth rates slowed, and in America, at least until recently, remained fairly linear. But in Europe, around 1960, the infection rate picked up, very likely due to the trade-boosting effect of economic integration. This not only spread diseases around the continent itself. It also made the law-abiding countries of northern Europe, such as Britain, susceptible to the sloppier customs regimes of the continent’s southern fringe.

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21580459-arboreal-confirmation-britain-european-country-european-problems-unquiet-woods?fsrc=rss|btn

 

“BREAKTHROUGH” – Genetic secrets of resistant tree gives new hope over ash dieback disease [16Jun13]

The scientists are extremely hopeful that, having determined the tree’s complete set of genetic material – through a process known as genome sequencing – they have paved the way to identify those genes which might be connected to its ability to withstand the fungus.

Although the breakthroughs have raised hopes that a new breed of ash will be able to grow and survive in the face of the fungus, they will do nothing to protect Britain’s 80m existing ash trees, which are all under threat.

Adult clones of tree 35 grown from cuttings taken from the original trees in the 1930s were recently discovered on the Danish island of Sealand. [However] just planting this variety of Ash in the UK would result in a narrow genetic base making the species vulnerable to future diseases, experts said, adding that the latest breakthroughs still represented a giant step forward for the long-term prospects of the tree in this country.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/genetic-secrets-of-resistant-tree-gives-new-hope-over-ash-dieback-disease-8660992.html

 

RESISTANCE STUDY ANNOUNCED -#Ashdieback disease to be studied at Suffolk Wildlife Trust nature reserve [12May13]

Genetic resistance to ash dieback disease is to be studied at a Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) nature reserve.

Scientists from the Forestry Commission are using the site at Arger Fen and Spouse’s Grove, near Sudbury, to study genetic resistance to the Chalara fungus – which causes the disease.

About 15 different strains of ash will be planted on the five acre site later this week.

The trust responded to a request from the Forestry Commission for sites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-22484952

 

PRIORITISING RESILIENCE – Learning from ash dieback [30Apr13]

I am particularly excited that the Real Life Science Studio in the John Hope Gateway will be hosting the Virtual Landscape Theatre for one week from 8th August. This interactive exhibit allows an audience to decide what actions should be taken to reduce the impact of ash dieback and to explore the implications of these choices. Intrigued? Come and find out more in August!

Diseases are a real threat to our trees and it is likely we will loose a high proportion of our ash trees. Yet, over the course of this project I started to feel more positive about the future of Scottish woodlands. It would be easy to listen to the mass media and get very depressed about the state of our forests and trees. But woodlands are dynamic and have always changed; over such long periods of time we humans find it difficult to comprehend.

We need to build resilience in the woodlands of Scotland to ensure their longevity. By this I mean managing woodlands in a way that creates diversity in the species present, diversity in the age of the trees and diversity in structure. If we do this it may be possible to maintain the ever-changing, unique woodlands of Scotland.

http://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/2051

 

HAPPY COUPLE – How trees 35 and 18 could enable fight back against ash dieback [31Mar13]

Scientists are now breeding the two ash trees together in the hope that they will be able to create a new generation of saplings able to survive infection by the Chalara fraxinea fungus, which causes ash dieback.

Experts have found two trees – known as tree 35 and tree 18 – among Denmark’s ruined woodland that show the highest levels of resistance to the fungus ever seen.

British scientists have teamed up with Danish researchers in a bid to find the genes responsible for protecting these plants from ash dieback.

They hope to develop a test that will allow them to find similar trees in Britain’s woodland so they can begin breeding new saplings to replace those that die as a result of the fungus.

While other ash trees in the plot withered and died as the fungus slowly spread along their branches and through their leaves, the plants grown from tree 35 and tree 18 remained strong and healthy.

The pair also were found to be a viable breeding pair – with tree 35 being predominantly female and tree 18 being predominantly male.

 

PLANTING SEEDLINGS ‘EN MASSE’ – Defra Chalara Action Plan [28Mar13]

• Developing resistance to the disease in the native ash tree population
• Encouraging landowner, citizen and industry engagement in surveillance, monitoring and action in tackling the problem

Defra said it is planting 250,000 ash saplings in the east and south east so Defra scientists and the Forestry Commission and local landowners can monitor the trees for signs of Chalara, paying particular attention to any signs of resistance.

http://www.trees.org.uk/aa/news/Defra-admits-impossible-to-eradicate-ash-dieback-148.html

Comment: It is crazy to spend all the money planting out nursery reared seedlings, when natural woodlands can do a much better job themselves for free, with woodland saplings benefiting from their ancient mycorrhizal support systems. See: http://worldwidewood.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/ashes-from-ashes-making-a-one-acre-natural-nursary/ (JW)

 

ASHES FROM ASHES – Making a one acre natural nursery [25Apr13]

This year, the winter’s work graduated from the young hazel coupes to the high forest. The objective was to fell 85 per cent of the trees, leaving only the very best oak trees, about 20 of the best ash and a few lucky birch trees to add a bit of variety. Of course, all the dastardly Holly had to be removed, too.

In two years, a crop of thousands of ash seedlings will sprout into the new light. Then all we have to do is keep the Holly regrowth in check and KEEP THE DEER OUT with a fence. The experts are saying that one in 10 trees are resistant. Lets say I have 10,000 seedlings … we would still have too many ash trees for the area. So let’s say, it is only one in a 1000 that are resistant, then we would still have 10 resistant trees, wouldn’t we? And that would be priceless.

http://worldwidewood.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/ashes-from-ashes-making-a-one-acre-natural-nursary/

 

GENOME MAPPING – Major cash for ash [08Mar13]

“We won’t be able to solve the whole problem in the life of this collaboration. However, we aim to use new technologies to help tree breeders select the best trees to cross-fertilise. We hope to generate the knowledge needed to understand why this fungus has become such a problem. That knowledge will catalyse further research around the world.”

It will be the first time that some advanced genetic techniques such as ‘associative transcriptomics’ are used in trees. This is where the expressed genes of plant varieties are compared to identify markers for traits. These can be used to speed up marker assisted breeding.

The scientists will focus part of their ash research on ‘Tree 35’, a tree in Denmark that has stayed healthy during the epidemic that has damaged most ash trees in the country. By mapping the genomes of ‘Tree 35’ and other trees with low susceptibility, they will be able to establish the genetic basis of resistance.

Ash is highly variable because mother trees can have multiple partners. If, within this variation, different types of ash show some resistance, the scientists will be able to recommend building stronger resistance based on multiple crosses. Different crosses for different environments will also need to be suggested, to breed resistant trees adapted to specific conditions.

http://news.jic.ac.uk/2013/03/major-cash-for-ash/

 

RESISTANCE OF TREE 35 – Live online Q&A: Cash for ash. Will it help?

Should we start planting Ash with natural Chalara resistance even if they aren’t of UK provenance, e.g. Danish ‘Tree 35′?

AD: We should be very clear that tree 35 is not ‘resistant’. It tolerates the fungus better than most but it still gets infected. We do not know what is likely to happen with such trees over 20-40 years. The plan it to see if there are different genetic determinants in different trees that tolerate the fungus. If there are, it may be possible to cross them with each other and combine the characters to increase tolerance.

DM: It isn’t certain whether ‘Tree 35′ is going to be tolerant against the UK population of ash dieback. Tree 35 has shown to have great tolerance, but it isn’t clear how it will be in 20 – 30 years and we want to be able to create long term resistance. That said, there are great lessons to be learned from the genetic makeup of this tree and understanding how it has reached this tolerance is going to be of great benefit. In the end we would like to achieve a UK population of resistant trees, with UK-specific diversity, as our tree population is genetically different from the Danish population.

JW: Before we can go ahead with widespread planting of ash trees such as Tree 35, we have to be sure about the extent of its resistance.  However, just because trees/seeds are not of UK provenance doesn’t mean we should exclude them.  The releases from a number of programmes breeding for resistance to Dutch elm disease have made use of a wide range of elm species from Asia to produce resistant elms.  Also, many of the broadleaf trees planted in Britain, including oaks raised after the Napoleonic wars, have depended on seed from other European countries.

http://oadb.tsl.ac.uk/?p=371

 

BENEFITS OF REGEN – The #ashdieback debate develops [27Nov12]

In East Sussex where I live I know of many places, usually abandoned fields, that have regenerated to secondary woodland surprisingly quickly and, judging by the size of the saplings I have seen in some televised tree planting schemes (maybe only from seed this year), regeneration may be almost as fast, if not faster than planting.  Though it does not do much for the tree nursery trade, or other human engagement with tree planting schemes.

I have long thought that we are failing to appreciate the diversity and complexity of wildlife if we compartmentalise the landscape too much: that is a wood, that is a heath, that is a field.

http://ramblingsofanaturalist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-ash-dieback-debate-develops.html