Ecological Resilience – woodlands and tree pests/pathogens
Risk assessments of plant pests/pathogens rarely account for potential impacts on biodiversity associated with the affected host. We study the co-occurring trees ash and oak affected by ash dieback and acute oak decline, respectively, and show that declines in both these trees would impact on 512 associated species that don’t use any other UK tree species. This cumulative impact means 141 (38%) more affected associated species than when the trees decline individually.