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This advanced textbook investigates how pathogens shape diversity in plant communities, how features of plant-microbe interactions including host range and mutualism/antagonism evolve, and how biological invasions, climate change, and other agents of global change can drive disease emergence.
List of contents
- Preface
- Part 1: Plant Pathogens and Disease
- 1: Thinking like a plant disease ecologist
- 2: How to be a plant
- 3: How to be a fungus
- 4: How to be an oomycete
- 5: How to be a bacterium
- 6: How to be a virus
- 7: How to be a macroparasite
- 8: Types of diseases
- 9: How to do disease ecology
- Part 2: Evolutionary Ecology of Plant-Pathogen Symbioses
- 10: The population ecology of plant disease
- 11: Spatial ecology
- 12: Physiology and genetics
- 13: Evolution
- 14: Community ecology
- 15: The plant microbiome
- 16: Global change
- 17: Disease management
- Epilogue
About the author
Gregory S. Gilbert is Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, USA. He is a plant pathologist and forest ecologist, and his research interests include the dynamics of plant and fungal communities, as well as the application of evolutionary ecology to environmental problem solving. He is the Director of the UCSC Forest Ecology Research Plot, and is a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.
Ingrid M. Parker is Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, USA. She is a plant evolutionary ecologist, and her research interests include plant disease ecology, the invasion of non-native species, the evolution of domestication, ecological restoration, and plant conservation. She is a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.
Summary
Understanding the symbiosis between plants and pathogenic microbes is at the core of effective disease management for crops and managed forests. At the same time, plant-pathogen interactions comprise a wonderfully diverse set of ecological relationships that are powerful and yet so commonplace that they often go unnoticed. Ecologists and evolutionary biologists are increasingly exploring the terrain of plant disease ecology, investigating topics such as how pathogens shape diversity in plant communities, how features of plant-microbe interactions including host range and mutualism/antagonism evolve, and how biological invasions, climate change, and other agents of global change can drive disease emergence. Traditional training in ecology and evolutionary biology seldom provides structured exposure to plant pathology or microbiology, and training in plant pathology rarely offers depth in the theoretical frameworks of evolutionary ecology or includes examples from complex wild ecosystems. This novel textbook seeks to unite the research communities of plant disease ecology and plant pathology by bridging this gap.
Additional text
This book has clear yet concise details and takes the reader through the course at an achievable pace. There are colourful illustrations, useful learning tips such as a mnemonic to remember rust spore types and insert boxes to highlight key processes or techniques, such as serological testing using ELISA. To help non-experts, there are primers on some mathematical analyses such as population models. New terms are highlighted in bold; a glossary of these words would be a useful addition.
