Pathologists and entomologists must join forces against forest pest and pathogen invasions

By

Jactel, Hervé
Desprez-Loustau, Marie-Laure
Battisti, Andrea
Brockerhoff, Eckehard G.
Santini, Alberto
Stenlid, Jan
Bjorkman, Christer
Branco, Manuela
Dehnen-Schmutz, Katharina
Douma, Bob
Drakulic, Jassy
Drizou, Fryni
Eschen, René
Franco, José Carlos
Gossner, Martin
Green, Samantha
Kenis, Marc
kjiwpalk, Maartje
Liebhold, Andrew M.
Orazio, Christophe
Prospero, Simone
Robinet, Christelle
Schroeder, Martin
Slippers, Bernard
Stoev, Pavel
Sun, Jianghua
van den Dool, Robbert
Wingfield, Michael J.
Zalucki, Myron P.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

58

Pages

107--127

Subjects

Capacity building , Detection , Disease , exotic , Forest health , Fungi , Identification , Insects , interdisciplinarity , Management

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.58.54389

 

Abstract

The world’s forests have never been more threatened by invasions of exotic pests and pathogens, whose causes and impacts are reinforced by global change. However, forest entomologists and pathologists have, for too long, worked independently, used different concepts and proposed specific management methods without recognising parallels and synergies between their respective fields. Instead, we advocate increased collaboration between these two scientific communities to improve the long-term health of forests.Our arguments are that the pathways of entry of exotic pests and pathogens are often the same and that insects and fungi often coexist in the same affected trees. Innovative methods for preventing invasions, early detection and identification of non-native species, modelling of their impact and spread and prevention of damage by increasing the resistance of ecosystems can be shared for the management of both pests and diseases.We, therefore, make recommendations to foster this convergence, proposing in particular the development of interdisciplinary research programmes, the development of generic tools or methods for pest and pathogen management and capacity building for the education and training of students, managers, decision-makers and citizens concerned with forest health.