Kathy Lewis – författare

This book features four peer-reviewed reviews on understanding and tackling the major pests and diseases affecting forest trees.The first chapter uses a case study approach to describe how various forest pathogens affect trees and introduces strategies to reduce damage caused by forest pathogens in managed stands. The chapter introduces parasitic flowering plants, rust pathogens, diseases caused by Phytophthora spp., as well as abiotic disease.The second chapter reviews the range of pathogens in tropical forests, from root, stem and wilt diseases, to foliage pathogens, nematodes, algae and parasitic plants. The chapter also details the different approaches to disease management, including selection and breeding for resistance and biological control.The third chapter considers the interacting effects of climate change on native and invasive insect pests in boreal and temperate forests. The chapter discusses recent advances in predicting forest insect responses to climate change, as well as best practices for their monitoring and management.The final chapter provides a brief overview of Dutch elm disease, citing its emergence, modes of transmission and methods of control. A case study on the development of the Verticillium albo-atrum WCS850 strain to control the disease is then discussed in detail.

Modern agriculture faces many challenges, most crucially food security and the need for sustainable farming systems. Decisions and actions in the agricultural sector come from government and stakeholder policies and on-farm decision-making. This comprehensive monograph provides a perspective on the current state of agri-environmental management in Europe from both a policy and practical perspective.Some of the issues in agriculture discussed are climate change and air pollution, biodiversity, water use and quality, pesticides, pathogens, flooding and drought, energy resources, land use, soil composition, nutrients, livestock, cropping, habitat management and cultural considerations.These important issues form the framework of the book, with each issue discussed in the context of its history, and asking the questions 'why is it an issue', 'what is the current scientific understanding regarding it' and 'how has policy shaped it'. The book takes an integrated approach by not just examining these issues separately, but examining the whole system in which these problems are manifested. At the end, technologies and solutions which are currently being developed and could be used in the future are discussed and the horizon scanned for future environmental challenges.Agri-environmental Management in Europe is an authoritative source for both undergraduate and post-graduate studies that consider the agri-environmental challenges society faces.