A newly discovered microscopic worm is making headlines in American newspapers following plant pathologist Matt Borden’s recent discovery.
– This is depressing, Borden adds NBC News.
Beech trees
The fresh nematode – or roundworm in Norwegian – will mainly attack trees, and preferably beech trees. According to the newspaper, since 2012 there have been major problems related to disease on beech-leaf trees.
The plant pathologist discovered the pest just 50 meters into the forest in Wildwood State Park on Long Island in the US.
Shocking discovery on the seabed
The worm is said to have attacked trees across the northeastern United States, and Borden points to both destroyed trees as well as eaten leaves in the park.
These are nematodes
Nematodes are an order of animals called roundworms in Norwegian. The term is often used for plant parasitic roundworms.
Plant-parasitic nematodes, formerly called “eels”, are pests of plants. They are 0.5–2 mm long, semi-transparent filamentous, unjointed and limbless. They are equipped with a hollow mouth sting which they insert into the plant cells to absorb nutrients.
The nematodes are unisexual, and the developmental stages are egg, larva (which undergoes four moults) and sexually mature individual. They depend on water for all movement. Many species have biological races (pathotypes), which greatly complicates control, especially when using resistant plant varieties.
Source: SNL: snl.no/nematoder
The disease was first discovered in Ohio the same year, and has later been detected in twelve states.
The mysterious condition has been found to be caused by a newly discovered subspecies of nematodes, or microscopic roundworms. There is still great skepticism about how the nematodes reproduce.
– The worms can have an enormous ecological impact, says Mihail Kantor, assistant professor of nematology at Pennsylvania State University.
Concern
The entrance of the worms since 2012 is causing concern among experts in the field, and Kantor belongs to a small group of researchers who are committed to finding the causes of the attacks, and at best solutions that can save the trees.
Every three months, he and several other researchers and professionals in the field meet through telephone conferences to discuss their own work and progress.
However, the researchers are said to be lagging behind financially, as they have not succeeded in getting government subsidies to be able to continue what they call “much needed” research.
– This threatens to eliminate an important northeastern tree species, says Margery Daughtrey at Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Science.
2023-08-08 07:10:48
#Researcher #sounds #alarm #Depressing
