Abiotic conditions, plant diseases, and conservation
Plant diseases require the confluence of a susceptible host, a virulent pathogen, and conditions conducive to disease development. Climate change, forest fragmentation, and habitat alteration all drive changes in light and moisture that directly affect the interactions between plants and their pathogens. Similarly, variation and changes in soil conditions affect the distribution and severity of disease development. Understanding how variation and changes in the abiotic environment changes the epidemiology and impacts of plant diseases in natural environments is crucial to effective conservation planning and restoration ecology, as well as to understanding the basic evolutionary ecology of plant diseases.

Related publications

• Gilbert, G.S., D.R. Reynolds and A. Bethancourt. 2007. The patchiness of epifoliar fungi in tropical forests: host range, host abundance, and environment. Ecology 88:575-581.
• Springer, Y., B.A. Hardcastle, and G.S. Gilbert. 2006. Soil calcium and plant disease in serpentine ecosystems: A test of the pathogen refuge hypothesis.  Oecologia DOI 10.1007/s00442-006-0566-1
• Gilbert, G.S. and D.R. Reynolds.2005. Nocturnal fungi: Airborne spores in the canopy and understory of a tropical rain forest. Biotropica 37: 461-463
• Gilbert, G. S. 2005. The dimensions of plant disease in tropical forests. Pages141-164 in D.R.F.P. Burslem, M.A. Pinard and S. Hartley (eds.) Biotic Interactions in the Tropics. Cambridge University Press.
• Bradley, D. J., G. S. Gilbert, and I. M. Parker. 2003. Susceptibility of clover species to fungal infection: the interaction of leaf surface traits and environment. American Journal of Botany 90:857-864.
• Gilbert, G.S. 2002. Evolutionary ecology of plant diseases in natural systems. Annual Review of Phytopathology 40:13-43.
• Gilbert, G. S., K. E. Harms, D. N. Hamill, S. P. Hubbell, and R. B. Foster. 2001. Effects of seedling size, weather, seedling density, and distance to nearest conspecific adult on 6-year survival of Ocotea whitei seedlings in Panamá. Oecologia 127: 509-516.
• Gilbert, G. S., N. Talaro, C. A. Howell, and A. Symstad. 1997. Multiple-scale spatial distribution of the fungal epiphyll Scolecopeltidium on Trichilia spp. in two lowland moist tropical forests. Canadian Journal of Botany 75: 2158-2164.
• Gilbert, G. S. and D. De Steven. 1996. A canker disease of seedlings and saplings of Tetragastris panamensis (Burseraceae) caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea in a lowland tropical forest. Plant Disease 80: 684-687.