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Ohia trees are dying rapidly, Why?
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10-17-2013, 05:27 AM
quote: Per many previous factual posts, Monsanto had nothing to do with the GMO papayas which saved the Big Island papaya industry from collapse. Really, all the kneejerks on this topic have become extremely tiresome.
10-17-2013, 05:35 AM
quote: Personally it sounds to me like an unidentified airborne virus, or airborne pest spreading a virus, which several have suggested. This would answer the question of why the experts can't pin this down despite study going back to the early 1900s.
10-17-2013, 05:53 AM
I had two large Ohia that died suddenly in May, had them removed. In the last two weeks six more have fallen, the latest in last Fridays' thunderstorm. One just missed our truck. We're still cleaning up. As you drive uphill from town you might notice from about mile marker 12 it looks like all the Ohia along the road are dead. I think OpenD has the closest theory to reality; fungus or a combination of factors including Vog.
10-17-2013, 05:54 AM
Monsanto isn't quite 100% kneejerking: given that science has advanced enough to splice insect DNA into our food crops, it shouldn't be too difficult to diagnose new problems as they occur in the wild -- there might even be useful knowledge waiting to be discovered.
Unless, of course, priorities and money and all that, because ohia doesn't make food or biofuel, etc. In all fairness, I'll also note that the OP didn't say anything about where these dying ohia are located, or what may have happened recently. Are the dead ohias all along a newly-ripped driveway? Maybe downslope from a commercial farm, or someone's new cesspool? Hmm?
10-17-2013, 06:25 AM
there really is a dieback problem - despite people trying to blame it on human causes. it's interesting and it does concern me. i have seen it down in lower puna - and not so much in upper puna where i live.
10-17-2013, 07:14 AM
OK, I didn't post links before... but the dieback problems with ohia are VERY WELL RESEARCHED & DOCUMENTED, Peter Vitousek is probably one of the early gurus of ohia dieback research & has given talks in Hilo & around the island since we have been here, along with other researchers... In order to give some a little research, here are some of the research papers I have looked at, some dated back a few decades (Before GMO ... would that be BGMO years???)
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/922 http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10....=ecolsys.1 http://www.scopenvironment.org/downloadp...5-ch10.pdf http://agroforestry.net/tti/Metrosideros-ohia.pdf http://www.hear.org/books/hte1985/pdfs/h...ombois.pdf ADDED: some of these papers are also pre the east rift eruption, geothermal, most of the pesticides in current use....and the fact that the very early reports of these dieoffs predate any pesticide use & some of the areas that are currently effected would not even be areas of pesticide concern..... not the lower stuff most of the Puna people are noting but the mauka dieoffs... & large ohia dieoffs that have been noted for a century...points to a cyclic problem that is probably older than many of the more recent introductions...
10-17-2013, 07:37 AM
Might have something to do with rainfall being 75% below normal this past summer, at least down here in the Kehena area. I know 3-4 years ago when we also had a long drought, many of the trees in this area started dying. Even the ironwoods have been looking shabby until recently.
As mentioned, we have been in a drought for over 4 years now, with it being rare to get even normal rainfall for any month of the year. Most months have been closer to half of normal.
10-21-2013, 03:45 PM
Some of the Knee Jerking things I through up on this post seem a little more plausible after the pesticide article in the paper today. If people are being affected by the agricultural practices, certainly a very sensitive tree like our rain making OHIA Could be affected by the higher levels of pesticides? Google maps of lower puna clearly shows how much land is being farmed right now. Glance behind Green mountain, or behind Geothermal, Across from Poihiki, Even all the way up Opi'ikoa. Anyway we all get most of our winds off this coast up the pali then over the mountain. The burn is heavy right now down on the coast of Kapoho too? Probably not the problem, but let's keep an Open mind when it comes to pesticides with GLYPHOSATE in it. Papaya is 20 cents a pound, to some this may not be worth the future health problems? Peace out. P.S very sad dying land and oceans are all around us, Fish kills, and staph are on the rise.
10-21-2013, 04:24 PM
quote:In a word, no. At least, not by glyphosate, which binds tightly to the soil and also breaks down quickly. Of course, they may be using other herbicides beside the anti-GMO crowd's favorite bogeyman. But those too are not likely to be moving in the quantities needed to kill trees. |
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