Anne Edwards is a British plant scientist, based at the John Innes Centre and was the first person in the UK to identify Ash dieback disease in England, [1] [2] [3] [4]
Anne Edwards is a British plant scientist, based at the John Innes Centre and was the first person in the UK to identify Ash dieback disease in England, [1] [2] [3] [4]
Edwards was the first person to identify Ash Dieback, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, discovering it in Ashwellthorpe Woods, Norfolk in 2012. [5] [6] Four years later she found a tree that was resistant to the disease and named it Betty which was used to help identify three genetic markers associated with resistance against the disease. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] Anne is heavily involved in the Nornex consortium, an open-access and crowdsourcing approach, [12] which was established to respond to this outbreak. This involved creating a game, Fraxinus, where players analyse real data. [13] She continues to play an active role in researching the disease, for example in estimating the mortality of trees it infects [14] and tracing back how the fungus entered the country from just one or two fruiting bodies. [15]
During her career Edwards has also worked on grass pea (Lathyrus sativus), one of the oldest known crops, native to southern and eastern Europe, Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Grass pea is a key food source and is extremely drought and flood resistant. It has a very high protein content and as a nodulating legume it requires no artificial fertiliser so can grow on, and improve, the poorest of soils. However, grass pea produces a toxin that can cause irreversible paralysis if it is consumed as the main food source over several months. [16] As such, with Cathie Martin, Edwards is working to develop safe varieties that can be used by smallholder farmers. [17]
In 2015 Edwards was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to the environment and the public understanding of science, for her discovery and work on the disease, plus her scientific communication outreach work. [18] [19]
Fraxinus, commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergreen trees. The genus is widespread throughout much of Europe, Asia, and North America.
Fraxinus americana, the white ash or American ash, is a fast-growing species of ash tree native to eastern and central North America.
Fraxinus excelsior, known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash, is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains, and Great Britain and Ireland, the latter determining its western boundary. The northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway. The species is widely cultivated and reportedly naturalised in New Zealand and in scattered locales in the United States and Canada.
Platanus racemosa is a species of plane tree known by several common names, including California sycamore, western sycamore, California plane tree, and in North American Spanish aliso. Platanus racemosa is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in riparian areas, canyons, floodplains, at springs and seeps, and along streams and rivers in several types of habitats. It can be found as far north as Tehama and Humboldt counties.
The emerald ash borer, also known by the acronym EAB, is a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years. In its native range, it is typically found at low densities and does not cause significant damage to trees native to the area. Outside its native range, it is an invasive species and is highly destructive to ash trees native to Europe and North America. Before it was found in North America, very little was known about emerald ash borer in its native range; this has resulted in much of the research on its biology being focused in North America. Local governments in North America are attempting to control it by monitoring its spread, diversifying tree species, and through the use of insecticides and biological control.
Phytophthora cinnamomi, also known as cinnamon fungus, is a soil-borne water mould that produces an infection which causes a condition in plants variously called "dieback", "root rot", or, "ink disease".
Fraxinus pennsylvanica, the green ash or red ash, is a species of ash native to eastern and central North America, from Nova Scotia west to southeastern Alberta and eastern Colorado, south to northern Florida, and southwest to Oklahoma and eastern Texas. It has spread and become naturalized in much of the western United States and also in Europe from Spain to Russia.
Fraxinus angustifolia, the narrow-leaved ash, is a species of Fraxinus native to Central Europe and Southern Europe, Northwest Africa, and Southwest Asia.
Forest dieback is a condition in trees or woody plants in which peripheral parts are killed, either by pathogens, parasites or conditions like acid rain, drought, and more. These episodes can have disastrous consequences such as reduced resiliency of the ecosystem, disappearing important symbiotic relationships and thresholds. Some tipping points for major climate change forecast in the next century are directly related to forest diebacks.
Lowland heath is a Biodiversity Action Plan habitat as it is a type of ancient wild landscape. Natural England's Environmental Stewardship scheme describes lowland heath as containing dry heath, wet heath and valley mire communities, usually below 250 metres (820 ft) in altitude, on acidic soils and shallow peat, typically comprising heathers, gorses, fine grasses, wild flowers and lichens in a complex mosaic. Heathers and other dwarf shrubs usually account for at least 25% of the ground cover. By contrast, upland heath, which is above 300 metres (980 ft) in altitude, is called moorland, Dartmoor being an example.
Bulgaria inquinans is a fungus in the family Phacidiaceae. It is commonly known by the name black bulgar and black jelly drops.
Forest pathology is the research of both biotic and abiotic maladies affecting the health of a forest ecosystem, primarily fungal pathogens and their insect vectors. It is a subfield of forestry and plant pathology.
Arger Fen is a 49.7-hectare (123-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) south-east of Sudbury in Suffolk, England. The site occupies two separate areas. The 17.6-hectare (43-acre) Arger Fen Local Nature Reserve is part of the larger eastern block, and contains part of the 21-hectare (52-acre) Tiger Hill Local Nature Reserve, along with part of the 110-hectare (270-acre) Arger Fen and Spouse's Vale, a nature reserve managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. The site lies in the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty,
Hymenoscyphus fraxineus is an ascomycete fungus that causes ash dieback, a chronic fungal disease of ash trees in Europe characterised by leaf loss and crown dieback in infected trees. The fungus was first scientifically described in 2006 under the name Chalara fraxinea. Four years later it was discovered that Chalara fraxinea is the asexual (anamorphic) stage of a fungus that was subsequently named Hymenoscyphus pseudoalbidus and then renamed as Hymenoscyphus fraxineus.
Hymenoscyphus albidus is a saprotrophic fungus which grows on the dead leaves of ash trees.
The Future Trees Trust is a charity that aims to improve and increase the stock of hardwood trees in Britain and Ireland.
CandidatusPhytoplasma fraxini is a species of phytoplasma, a specialized group of bacteria which lack a cell wall and attack the phloem of plants. This phytoplasma causes the diseases ash yellows and lilac witches' broom.
The Ash Archive is a project founded in 2019 to restore ash trees to the landscape in England. English ash trees experienced massive dieback beginning in 2012 as a result of a fungal pathogen, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. The archive contains over 3,000 trees, all of which propagated from the shoots of trees that had demonstrated some resistance to the fungus. The archive was established with £1.9 million in government funding, and followed a five-year project to identify ash trees that were resistant to the fungus. One of the final trees in the archive was planted in January 2020 by Nicola Spence, the Chief Plant Health Officer of the UK government. Spence said, "I’m delighted to acknowledge the successes of the Ash Archive project and welcome the International Year of Plant Health by planting an ash dieback-tolerant tree."
Lejeunea mandonii, also known as Atlantic lejeunea is a species of liverwort from the Lejeuneaceae family.
Fraxinus paxiana is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae, native to central and southern China. A tree reaching 20 m (66 ft), it is found in forested valley slopes, usually from 400 to 1,100 m above sea level. In the wild it is heavily infected with Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the fungal pathogen that causes ash dieback, but shows little damage.
| Authority control databases: Academics |
|---|
