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Summary
Ohio State Researchers Work to Addresses Impact of Emerald Ash Borer, Future Preservation of Native Ash Trees (5/10/2009)
Since the invasive ash tree killer known as the emerald ash borer (EAB) was found in the United States in 2002 threatening 10 percent of all trees in Ohio and destroying the states $20 million a year production of this popular landscape tree researchers with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and OSU Extension have been on the leading edge of research efforts aimed at assessing this pesky pests environmental impact and trying to save ash as a species in North American forest and landscapes. Just like chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease before it, EAB is capable of wiping out an entire species of native trees from North America. Entomologist Dan Herms and plant pathologist Enrico Bonello lead a project aimed at developing a hybrid ash that would be resistant to the voracious beetle and still carry characteristics of the native trees. Identification of resistant genotypes will be critical for reforestation, as well as for maintaining market demand for ash in the nursery industry, said Herms, whose collaborators also include Michigan State University, Wright State University and the U.S. Forest Services (USFS) laboratory in Delaware, Ohio. The project has so far attracted more than $1 million in funding from sources such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), USFS, the International Society of Arboriculture and the Horticultural Research Institute. Through experimental plantings in Michigan and Ohio that combine native ash species and Manchurian ash (an Asian species that has evolved alongside EAB and is resistant to it), researchers are exposing these trees to natural attack by the insect and looking for markers of resistance in those that are capable of withstanding such attack. Once the genes associated with those markers of resistance are found, they can be used in targeted breeding programs that may involve hybridization of native ash with Asian ash, Bonello explained. Based on preliminary results, USFS researchers have begun projects to hybridize Asian and North American ashes the first step in developing a resistant tree. In another research project, funded by a $500,000 USDA grant, scientists are studying the environmental impacts EAB is having on forested land in Michigan and Ohio. In the process of killing native ash trees, said weed specialist and project leader John Cardina, EAB opens up gaps in the forest canopy creating an opportunity for invasive plants to colonize the understory and trigger a cascade of changes in forest structure and dynamics. Killing the ash trees is bad enough, but this may not be the worst impact of EAB on eastern U.S. forests, Cardina said. These invasive plants can change natural cycles and soil chemistry, out-compete seedlings of native trees such as oak, maple and cherry, and degrade the ecosystem in many other ways. The entire composition of the forest could be impacted in the long-term. The data generated by this project will translate into practices that those in charge of forest management can use to minimize the ecological impacts of EAB in Ohio and throughout eastern North America. For more information and these and other EAB-related studies conducted by Ohio State, log on to http://ashalert.osu.edu.
Since the invasive ash tree killer known as the emerald ash borer (EAB) was found in the United States in 2002 threatening 10 percent of all trees in Ohio and destroying the states $20 million a year production of this popular landscape tree researchers with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and OSU Extension have been on the leading edge of research efforts aimed at assessing this pesky pests environmental impact and trying to save ash as a species in North American forest and landscapes. Just like chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease before it, EAB is capable of wiping out an entire species of native trees from North America. Entomologist Dan Herms and plant pathologist Enrico Bonello lead a project aimed at developing a hybrid ash that would be resistant to the voracious beetle and still carry characteristics of the native trees. Identification of resistant genotypes will be critical for reforestation, as well as for maintaining market demand for ash in the nursery industry, said Herms, whose collaborators also include Michigan State University, Wright State University and the U.S. Forest Services (USFS) laboratory in Delaware, Ohio. The project has so far attracted more than $1 million in funding from sources such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), USFS, the International Society of Arboriculture and the Horticultural Research Institute. Through experimental plantings in Michigan and Ohio that combine native ash species and Manchurian ash (an Asian species that has evolved alongside EAB and is resistant to it), researchers are exposing these trees to natural attack by the insect and looking for markers of resistance in those that are capable of withstanding such attack. Once the genes associated with those markers of resistance are found, they can be used in targeted breeding programs that may involve hybridization of native ash with Asian ash, Bonello explained. Based on preliminary results, USFS researchers have begun projects to hybridize Asian and North American ashes the first step in developing a resistant tree. In another research project, funded by a $500,000 USDA grant, scientists are studying the environmental impacts EAB is having on forested land in Michigan and Ohio. In the process of killing native ash trees, said weed specialist and project leader John Cardina, EAB opens up gaps in the forest canopy creating an opportunity for invasive plants to colonize the understory and trigger a cascade of changes in forest structure and dynamics. Killing the ash trees is bad enough, but this may not be the worst impact of EAB on eastern U.S. forests, Cardina said. These invasive plants can change natural cycles and soil chemistry, out-compete seedlings of native trees such as oak, maple and cherry, and degrade the ecosystem in many other ways. The entire composition of the forest could be impacted in the long-term. The data generated by this project will translate into practices that those in charge of forest management can use to minimize the ecological impacts of EAB in Ohio and throughout eastern North America. For more information and these and other EAB-related studies conducted by Ohio State, log on to http://ashalert.osu.edu.
