Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The effects of climate change pose growing challenges for forestry, and the need for climate change-adapted management in the sector is growing. One of these changes is the need to increase the number of deciduous trees to improve forest resilience. The most dominant deciduous tree in Sweden is Betula spp (birch), and it will play an increasingly important role in adapting Swedish forests to climate change in the future. It is therefore important to consider potential challenges that may arise when planting more birch.
Heterobasidion root rot is a pathogenic fungus that infects several hosts, causes tree decay and leads to high economic losses all over Europe. While Heterobasidion primarily affects conifers, it can also infect broadleaf trees. Although some research indicates that birch can become infected with Heterobasidion when planted on previously infected sites, the degree to which it will become infected following thinning, in the absence of biological treatment, remains poorly understood. Therefore, a study (unpublished) was conducted to investigate the infection of Heterobasidion on birch stumps. The study revealed unexpectedly low indices of the pathogenic fungus Heterobasidion on the stumps, in contrast to the high prevalence of the non-pathogenic fungus Ophiostoma quercus. This raised the question of whether Ophiostoma is the cause of the low occurrence of Heterobasidion.
To investigate this, an in vitro pairing experiment was performed to determine if an interaction occurs between the two fungi. Contrary to the initial assumption that O. quercus would inhibit the growth of Heterobasidion, it appeared to not affect or in some cases increase its growth. Other interesting growth trends have been observed, however, which need to be investigated further.