News Release

A century of data uncovers how chestnut blight has devastated the American chestnut - and how forest composition has evolved since - in Shenanoah National Park, Virginia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Floristic changes following the chestnut blight may be delayed for decades

image: 

Two images from the field show a chestnut sprout and a close up of the fungus. The canker fungus, Cryphonectria parasitica, is responsible for widespread loss of American chestnut trees from the forest canopy and resprouting branches of an infected tree, which are girdled and killed by the fungus before they can reach the canopy or reproduce. 

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Credit: Claire Karban, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

A century of data uncovers how chestnut blight has devastated the American chestnut - and how forest composition has evolved since - in Shenanoah National Park, Virginia

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Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306748

Article Title: Floristic changes following the chestnut blight may be delayed for decades

Author Countries: U.S.

Funding: We were funded by the Washington Biologists’ Field Club. This is a small organization that gives out only a few small awards each year. We do not have a specific grant number associated with this award. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.


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