| dc.description.abstract |
Oak wilt, Ceratocystis fagacearum, has been documented in the Southern Appalachian
region of
North Carolina since the early 1950s. Due to its rapid spread and rate of damage,
the North
Carolina Forest Resources Division monitored oak wilt closely by performing annual
surveys to
both control for and monitor the disease. This project uses the monitoring data to
investigate
where and how oak wilt could spread in the near future. Understanding the spatial
nature of oak
wilt can help managers target future monitoring and prevention efforts for this particular
region.
Both spatial and statistical analyses were used, including the Chi-Squared test, Classification
and
Regression Tree (CART) models, and the Mantel test. Results from several tests indicate
that oak
wilt prefers specific oak species within the red oak family, has the potential to
spread in Western
North Carolina, and spread of oak wilt by long-range pathogen mechanisms have a higher
impact
on the transmission of oak wilt than short-range mechanisms.
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