What is causing the cork oak decline?
A study coordinated by a researcher from the University of Algarve (UAlg) has linked the appearance of a protein in the foliage with a pathogen that affects the roots and causes the decline of the cork oak.
The study coordinated by Ana Cristina Coelho, from the Centre for Electronics, Optoelectronics and Telecommunications (CEOT) of UAlg, was published in the online magazine PLoS ONE and “is framed in a phenomenon that already has taken place for many years” in Portugal, and in particular in the Algarve, but also in Spain and Italy.
It was based on work that brought plants into contact with the micro-organism responsible for infecting roots and which “seems to be responsible for slowly undermining the vitality of trees”.