sdu faculty of forestry journal special edition 2009 - Orman Fakültesi

SDÜ Faculty of Forestry Journal
had higher S. sapinea infection when the seedlings were subjected to water stress.
Similarly, in a 9–year–old red pine plantation in Wisconsin, trees with lower predawn
water potentials had more severe development of disease (Blodgett et al., 1997b). Also,
nutritional imbalances and alterations of nutrients can affect development of disease
(Stanosz et al., 2004). Blodgett et al. (2005) showed that fertilized red pine trees had
higher foliar N and greater lesion size.
In 2004 and 2005, Diplodia had devastating effect on P. brutia stands on lower
ranges of its distribution area (Lehtijärvi et al., 2007). It caused defoliation of the pines
and reduced growth. In this study, the objectives were to determine the occurrence of
disease on pines and also to determine the site and stand characteristics of this infected
site.
2. MATERIAL AND METHOD
The study site is located in Asagi Gokdere district of Isparta, along the Isparta-
Antalya highway (37 o 33" N, 30 o 45" E). The altitude is 350 m above sea level and the
distance to the Mediterranean coast is 75 km. The site was planted in mid 1980’s, and
it became somewhat dense over time with natural seeding and lack of tending
operations. Number of trees per hectare was 2100 on average and it reached as high as
2775 on one site. Mean annual precipitation is 1052 mm in Antalya weather station,
and there is almost no rainfall between June and September during the growing season.
Monthly average temperatures range from 0 o C to 23.4 o C, but maximum daily
temperatures can be as high as 41 o C during the summer, indicating very high demand
for evapotranspiration.
For the study, four different treatments with three replications were applied to the
stands to control the disease. These treatments included control, pruning, thinning and
pruning + thinning. Each plot was 20 x 20 m in size. Remains of pruning and thinning
operations were removed from the plots afterwards.
We conducted some measurements to determine the disease rate and site
parameters. These measurements included fungal survey, soil analysis, foliar analysis
and water potential.
2.1. Fungal survey
10 trees were samples from each plot for fungal survey in two different years (2006
and 2008). One dead branch from each tree was cut and the shoots were investigated
under the stereomicroscope for the presence of fungal structures. Samples were also
isolated to identify the fungal species based on conidial and pycnidial morphology.
Number of shoot samples with D. pinea was recorded.
2.2. Soil sampling
Soil samples were taken from 5 points in each plot at 0-20 cm depth. Coarse
material larger than approximately 3 cm in diameter was not included in soil
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