earticle

영어

Climate change has had a significant influence on Dalbergia sissoo in Pakistan due to the dieback epidemic. Dalbergia latifolia was introduced from Nepal to replace the declining D. sissoo populations in Pakistan. This study is the first to examine the growth and dieback status of D. latifolia in Pakistan. D. latifolia is primarily found in research institutions, and there is no evidence of it in the field. Compared to D. sissoo, D. latifolia exhibits slower growth and possesses a smaller height, lower diameter at breast height (DBH), and reduced biomass. Fusarium oxysporum was the primary fungus recovered from D. latifolia trees exhibiting typical dieback symptoms. F. oxysporum was identified using morphological and universal DNA barcodes from the ITS region. Fusarium oxysporum pathogenicity failed to cause dieback in saplings that were inoculated and watered regularly. However, seedlings that had been inoculated and exposed to water stress developed dieback symptoms. It was thus established that fungi are not the primary cause of dieback, but water stress, is the principal cause of dieback in D. latifolia, predisposing it to fungus. The attention should be placed on the selection of drought-tolerant shisham genotypes as well as water conservation techniques, especially as further droughts are expected in Pakistan.