ForWarn has potentially identified an area of change in the Southern Appalachians sometime between 2010 and 2012, which may be attributed to Rhododendron decline. There may be other fundamental reasons for the landscape change seen in the data (logging, other pathogens and diseases).
ForWarn has identified several potential threats to the Sequoia National Forest, California in May, 2016. Potential drought-induced delay in spring greennup created elevation banding within the forest. There is historical decline in vegetation greenness due to the western pine beetle causing tree mortality as well as tree vulnerability to disease during this time of year.
ForWarn detected a disturbance in southern Florida in May 2014. Laurel Wilt fungal disease is terminal in plants of the Laurel family. Drought induced dieback of vegetation as well as insect defoliation may also play a part in greenness departure. This event was revisited in July 2014 with newer imagery but the cause is still undetermined.
Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a disease caused by the new pathogen Phytophthora ramorum (Frankel and others, 2013). This spore-producing water mold was first observed when tanoak trees began dying during the mid 1990s in California’s Marin and Santa Cruz Counties. SOD is now known to infect dozens of other species--hosts that help spread the disease--but they do not always succumb.
