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Microscopic Criteria for the Diagnosis of Abiotic Injuries to Conifer Needles

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Forest Decline in the Atlantic and Pacific Region

Abstract

The sudden occurrence of the widespread “new type of forest decline” in Central Europe and North America during the early 1980s caused an intensive search for diagnostic criteria to evaluate possible causal pathogenic factors. From the beginning, abiotic agents seemed to be the main damaging factors, but discussion continued whether the symptoms observed in the field were primarily caused by (1) the direct impact of acid precipitation to the foliage; (2) the direct action of gaseous pollutants (O3, SO2, NOx) upon the leaves; or (3) the indirect effects of disturbances in the mineral nutrition by enhanced deposition of acidity and nitrogen, causing deficiencies in Mg, Ca and K (Roberts et al. 1989).

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Fink, S. (1993). Microscopic Criteria for the Diagnosis of Abiotic Injuries to Conifer Needles. In: Huettl, R.F., Mueller-Dombois, D. (eds) Forest Decline in the Atlantic and Pacific Region. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76995-5_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76995-5_12

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