• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.545-560
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• 2019

Unlike other critical forest diseases, pine pitch canker in Korea has shown rather mild symptoms of partial loss of crown foliage and leaf discoloration. This study used high-resolution satellite images to detect and monitor canopy decline by pine pitch canker. To enhance the subtle change of canopy reflectance in pitch canker damaged tree crowns, multi-temporal analysis was applied to two KOMPSAT multispectral images obtained in 2011 and 2015. To assure the spectral consistency between the two images, radiometric corrections of atmospheric and shadow effects were applied prior to multi-temporal analysis. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of each image and the NDVI difference (${\Delta}NDVI=NDVI_{2015}-NDVI_{2011}$) between two images were derived. All negative ΔNDVI values were initially considered any pine stands, including both pitch canker damaged trees and other trees, that showed the decrease of crown foliage from 2011 to 2015. Next, $NDVI_{2015}$ was used to exclude the canopy decline unrelated to the pitch canker damage. Field survey data were used to find the spectral characteristics of the damaged canopy and to evaluate the detection accuracy from further analysis.Although the detection accuracy as assessed by limited number of field survey on 21 sites was 71%, there were also many false alarms that were spectrally very similar to the damaged canopy. The false alarms were mostly found at the mixed stands of pine and young deciduous trees, which might invade these sites after the pine canopy had already opened by any crown damages. Using both ${\Delta}NDVI$ and $NDVI_{2015}$ could be an effective way to narrow down the potential area of the pitch canker damage in Korea.

• Asian Journal of Turfgrass Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.165-169
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• 2010

Fusarium circinatum is the causal agent of the pine disease commonly referred to as pitch canker. In this study, F. circinatum was isolated from the diseased Pinus rigida in the golf courses, Korea. The morphological characteristics and the molecular features of the isolates were investigated to identify the pathogen. Histone H3 gene and IGS rDNA region was analyzed and consequently the isolates identified as F. circinatum. All of them have the same sequences and the mating type was determined as MAT1-1. The inhibitory effect of the methanol extracts from the disease resistant pine species, Pinus koraiensis and Pinus densiflora and a susceptible species, P. rigida were evaluated against the isolate, F. circinatum. As a result, the extracts of P. koraiensis and P. densiflora showed higher antifungal activity than that of the susceptible, P. rigida.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.394-401
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• 2010

Resin flow, symptom development, and lignin biosynthesis in response to wounding and fungal inoculation were investigated in Pinus rigida and Pinus densiflora. The two-year-old seedling stems were subjected to three types of treatments: (i) wounding without inoculation, (ii) wound-inoculation with a conidial suspension of Fusarium circinatum, and (iii) pre-wounding woundinoculation with the fungus 20 days after the initial wounding. Resin flow from wounding sites was more evident in P. rigida than P. densiflora in all treatments. The wound-inoculation with the fungus induced almost two-fold higher levels of resin flow than the other treatments in both species. The pre-wounding woundinoculation appeared to result in a decrease in pitch canker development in the two pine species. Some reductions in disease severity were observed in the prewounding wound-inoculated P. rigida, showing a mean disease severity of less than 85%, compared with approximately 100% in the wound-inoculated stems. Disease severity was approximately 50% in the woundinoculated P. densiflora, whereas 10% in the pre-wounding wound-inoculated stems. Higher amounts of lignin were found from bark (ca. 40%) than from xylem (ca. 30%). The wound-inoculated bark and the pre-wounding wound-inoculated bark exhibited higher amounts of lignin among the other treatments. These results suggest that the wound-inoculation apparently prompt the increase in resin flow and lignin biosynthesis from the two pine species, and the prior wounding may be involved in decreased disease severity against the further invasion of F. circinatum.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.112-117
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• 2008

Pre-infection behavior of Fusarium circinatum on stems of pine species was investigated with scanning electron microscopy. Two-year-old stems of Pinus densiflora and p. rigida were inoculated with the fungal conidial suspension and subjected to $25^{\circ}C$ for up to 16 hr. Most microconidia germinated 12 hr after inoculation on pine stems. Conidia produced germ tubes from either one or both ends of microconidia. Germ tubes grew over the stem surface and appeared to enter host tissues through natural openings on pine stems. Surface cracks in the cork were entrance sites of germ tubes of F. circinatum. In addition, host cell wall cracks were often found at the tip of germ tubes. The cuticle appeared to be eroded either at the tip of germ tubes or around germlings. Germ tubes also produced appressoria-like structures, exhibiting swollen tips of germ tubes on the stem surface. There seems to be no significant differences in the pre-infection behavior of F. circinatum on stems between the two pine species.