Invasive alien species in Switzerland - Schweizer ...

9 > Fungi and a selected bacterium 125
9 > Fungi and a selected bacterium
Prepared by Rüdiger Wittenberg and Marc Kenis
Fungi are an often-neglected group and it is not possible to compile a list of neomycetes
for Switzerland, let alone to list the fungi occurring in Switzerland. It is a group
where the percentage of undescribed species is exceptionally high. In this report,
species which are of concern for native biodiversity and economics alike are summarized.
Species exclusively causing economic damage are not part of the report, since
they are the best-known species; the Swiss Federal Research Stations are responsible
for working on them, and there are also other sources, such as university research
departments, dealing with them. Two examples of excellent sources are:
> The Alert List of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization
(EPPO). The purpose of the Alert List is to draw attention to certain pests that may
present a risk to member countries, thereby functioning as an early warning system:
http://www.eppo.org/QUARANTINE/Alert_List/alert_list.html
> The Crop Protection Compendium (CPC) (see e.g. CABI, 2004) lists, for example,
104 fungi for Switzerland and provides Fact Sheets incorporating exhaustive information
on the species. It is also available on the Internet at:
http://www.cabi.org/compendia/cpc/index.htm
These sources give other links as well, so that a wealth of information is available for
the species of economic importance.
Six fungal species of immediate threat to the native biodiversity are discussed in this
section. There is also one bacterium, which is pathogenic to plants, included in the text
and a Fact Sheet.
Chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica (Murrill) Barr) (see Fact Sheet) was introduced
into North America and Europe. In North America chestnut blight has been an
ecological disaster. It changed the tree composition of the eastern forests completely by
removing one of the dominant trees, Castanea dentata (Marshall). Fortunately, it
seems that the European congeneric is less susceptible to the disease, although it has
suffered and tree composition is altering, in particular in the Ticino.
Another tree-attacking fungus, causing tremendous ecosystem changes in Europe, is
Dutch elm disease (Ceratocystis ulmi (Buisman) C.Moreau and C. novo-ulmi (Brassier))
(see Fact Sheet). Mature elm (Ulmus spp.) trees have disappeared from the landscape
in many regions. C. novo-ulmi seems to have arrived decades after C. ulmi and is
replacing it in many parts of Europe, e.g. Austria (Kirisits et al., 2001). Reinhardt et al.