Health status of two iconic trees in Chile
Today both species have particular attention, as they are in danger for different causes. That is why actions have multiplied, from public, academic and private sectors.
The Case of the Araucaria
José Manuel Rebolledo, CEO of CONAF, mentioned that, by late 2015, CONAF forest rangers gave notice of a phytosanitary issue that still afects the Araucaria araucana today.
“Affected individuals have chlorotic leaves, branch necrosis that moves towards a progressive drying of the foliage, eventually causing the death of the tree. This symptomatology is found in individuals of different ages and all across its natural distribution, both in Chile and Argentina.”
Rebolledo declared that once detected the situation, CONAF started terrestrial phytosanitary research in early 2016, with the aim of characterising dispersion and intensity of damage in the entire natural distribution of the Araucaria araucana. Given the magnitude of the issue and the connotation of the species, he added, the National Forestry Corporation made the decision to call for a work-table that helped combine efforts from public and private sectors, with the aim of achieving ideal cooperation and greater efficiency in the use of resources to determine the causal agent.
This work-table relied on participation from SAG, INFOR, the University of Concepción, University of Chile, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Austral University of Chile, Mayor University and the University of La Frontera, the Chilean National Museum of Natural History, and the private sector represented by Bioforest (Arauco) and Mininco (CMPC).
“It has also relied on valuable international cooperation, through support from FAO and the United States Forest Service to give advice on forest health issues. Several studies are currently developed with different causality hypothesis, each of which is currently addressed through a particular study,” explained the higher authority from CONAF.
In the same context, Luciano Pérez, national director of the Committee for the Defence of Flora and Fauna (CODEFF), expressed that, when an ecosystem is analysed, we tend to use terms associated to medicine and economy; for example, we say that insects ‘attack’ plants and cause ‘damage’ on them, or another organism, fungus or bacteria in general, cause ‘diseases’ on them.
“From an evolutive biological perspective, it’s not correct to use that terminology. Let ecosystems work. Problems emerge when humans perceive something that moves away from their own objectives; for example, if we establish a national park to protect araucarias, then we don’t expect that something perceived as ‘bad’ happens to them,” he thought.
Also, Luciano Pérez was emphatic on maintaining that, in an ecological context, the araucaria has a group of exclusive organisms that hunt it. Its log is drilled by insect larvae and trees eventually fall down and continue decomposing and forming organic soil we see today on metamorphic and volcanic rocks in the mountains, which generates conditions for colonisation by new plants and animals, and the succession of the forest.
“From this ecological perspective, this death brings life, so that we can say, from our non-ecological perspective, that araucarias have always presented symptoms of ‘disease’,” explained the professional from CODEFF.
Zones and Changes in the Environment
José Manuel Rebolledo, from CONAF, detailed that it was detected a zone at the Ralco National Reserve with high mortality and damage intensity on adults, youth and regeneration that was initially categorised as ‘Zero Ground’.
Other sectors that have shown high levels of prevalence and intensity of damage belong to the Malalcahuello National Reserve and the Villarrica National Park. It’s worth mentioning that the damage is present all throughout the natural distribution of the Araucaria araucana.
According to research coordinated by CONAF for the determination of the causes of foliar damage in the Araucaria araucana, there is major convergence that it’s due to a combination of biotic and abiotic causes.
This hypothesis postulates that changes in historical climate regimes have caused stress in the species (some places more stress than others), which generates an increase in the susceptibility to be attacked by pathogenic agents that have increased their population abundance.
“After a series of research and efforts focused on determining the causal agent, today there’s a group of pathogenic organisms categorised as suspicious. However, we lack pathogenicity research to confirm it,” assured José Manuel Rebolledo.
On the other hand, Luciano Pérez, from CODEFF, reaffirmed that what has been happening, in general, is that people are beginning to perceive changes in their environment and they don’t always have a cause to attribute them to. For example, amphibians who began their reproductive process 15 years ago with the first rains in late March, now they’re doing it in the middle of the winter.
“Different perceptions of change are happening at a global level, which tend to be attributed to climate change. So, as seen from this perspective, there’s a perception that there are araucarias whose foliage is drying and it’s attributed to a direct cause, foliage fungi, fungi the araucaria has always had, but they didn’t develop due to the vigour of most specimens.”
Pérez added that some professionals have suggested that mortality on araucarias is happening in low ‘productivity’ soils; moreover, they are centenary growth processes, so araucarias grow where temperatures, nutrients and water are appropriate for them.
Most adult araucaria specimens have a 99.5% prevalence of foliar damage. These numbers might be alarming. but we have to consider that it includes all individuals with presence of damage, which might be in just one branch of a big foliage.
The intensity of foliar damage in adults is 35.7% of the total, and a mortality of 7.2% has been recorded. On the other side, regeneration presents a prevalence of 92.2%, damage intensity of 43.8% and a mortality of 14.1%
(Information from the 2018-2019 season phytosanitary research, made by Mauricio Reyes, from the University of La Frontera).
Araucaria as endangered species?
According to what was established in the Decree no. 79, published on 2nd August 2018, reffered to the Process no. 14 from the Regulation for the current Classification of Wild Species in Chile (Ministry of Environment), it was decided to categorise an araucaria population in the Andes mountains (300.000 hectares) into the ‘vulnerable’ conservation status, and the population found in the coastal range (22.000 hectares) categorised as ‘endangered’ (CONAF).
What percentage of the species has died?
According to the latest phytosanitary research in the 2018-2019 season, adult mortality for the Araucaria araucana is 7.2%, a 1% increase in relation to the 2017-2018 season. Mortality in regeneration remained constant in relation to previous season in 14.1% (CONAF).
From the private sector
In 2016 an unusual situation began to affect the foliage of araucarias distributed in places at the Nahuelbuta ranges; it was leaf and branch necrosis, a diagnosis that made some specimens die. The same scenario was also present at plantations in some areas of the Andes mountains.
As a result of this and as a way to find a long-term solution to this issue, the Forestry Institute (INFOR), the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) and CMPC joined efforts with the aim of establishing a strategy that helped save the species.
It is assisted migration, an initiative that is being developed up to the present at the Carlos Douglas Garden Centre from CMPC. Seeds obtained from more than 410 female trees are those kept into this enclosure, expecting to reach the necessary height to be replanted in places where araucarias grow and places where, in the future, will have ideal climate conditions for the development of this species.
The Agreement
Meanwhile, in June 2018, CMPC and the Forestry Institute (INFOR) signed a collaboration agreement with the aim of protecting the genetic heritage from the Araucaria araucana.
In this way, both institutions committed to the conservation of this species and temporarily supporting its recovery through the technique known as assisted migration, which involves the seed collection to later take it to the enclosure and, finally, to plant it in places where the climate brings it more chances of survival.
This process is done at the Carlos Douglas Garden Centre from CMPC, located in the commune of Cabrero, Bío Bío Region, a place where “we are breeding araucarias, initiative made through assisted migration. What they want to do is protecting the evolutive potential of this species through the establishment of trials for specific trees and progeny,” explained CMPC’s head of plant production, Juan Andrés Celhay.
Additionally, in June 2019, CMPC donated 1.500 araucarias to the Nahuelbuta Foundation, located in the commune of Contulmo, as part of a program that seeks to restore the ranges.
The natural distribution of the Araucaria araucana is made of approximately 253.425 hectares (ha) in Chile, with presence in Bío Bío (38.796 ha), La Araucanía (200.667 ha) and Los Ríos (13.961 ha), at both Andes mountains and coastal ranges. Foliar damage is found all throughout its distribution. However, there have been affectation focuses at Ralco National Reserve and Villarrica National Park (CONAF).
Climate change
For the CEO of CONAF, climate change is one of the most appraised hypothesis by researchers, where they consider that changes in climate might be generating an increase in the species predisposition to attacks by pathogens.
“Investigations coordinated by CONAF have been able to confirm bioclimatic stress levels in araucaria populations as the product of changes in precipitation and temperatures. However, it’s necessary to continue with cllimate studies to help understanding in a better way the role of climate and its variations in the current sanitary condition of araucarias.”
Luciano Pérez, from CODEFF, agreed with CONAF’s director, mentioning that “everything indicates that it does, as the Araucaria araucana is a high-altitude cold-climate tree, where there has also been an increase in the number of days with high solar radiation, being surely affected by the water stress impulsed by the mega drought.”
So, he assured, the araucaria might be facing an average of meteorological climate conditions that didn’t occur a few decades ago. “It’s the average of days and months with anomalous conditions repeated over the last years, and this is a consequence of climate change, just like it has happened in other countries.”
The value of the Queule
According to specialists from Chilebosque, the queule (Gomortega keule) is an evergreen tree that usually reaches a maximum height of 15 metres and a diameter of 60 centimetres, though there have been recorded individuals with a diameter of 1 metre and heights over 30 metres in Quebrada de Caramávida, Nahuelbuta ranges, Bío Bío Region.
They added that their fruits, uncommonly big for species from the Chilean forest, are greenish drupes that turn yellow when maturing, reaching about 5 to 6 centimetres long. Inside them, there’s a ligneous seed extremely hard, round, with tortuous folds of similar looks to a miniature brain. This ligneous structure contains the actual seeds inside it.
According to Dámaso Saavedra, director of Keule Foundation, since 1989, the Red Book of Flora (Benoit, 1989) categorises it as ‘endangered species’ and in 2019 there is a scientific consensus with respect to keeping this category, and that’s how it was recorded by the First Process of Wild Species Classification (2005).
“The species remains in coastal areas of Maule, Ñuble and Bío Bío regions. Many of these sectors have suffered gradual changes in the last years. They are, for example, urban expansion and wildfires, elements that have drastically affected queule populations.”
Saavedra added that the possibility to contribute to reduce their danger of extinction is acting on the territory and working together to establish specific solutions to causes affecting the species. One of them is climate change, where conservation efforts must be focused on in the most vulnerable populations.
Research
From CODEFF, Luciano Pérez warned that research made on the queule doesn’t meet the importance of the species, because the only representative of an entire family of plants, Gomortegaceae, which is endemic to coastal areas of central Chile, survives today only between Arauco and Cauquenes provinces.
He added that the queule currently has a historical special feature, because it’s the only tree we firstly know for stump regeneration and country people call them ‘families’, because they are many that emerge from the borders of the stump, like people placed one beside the other, forming a circle.
“There are few surviving specimens coming from a seed, in fact, currently it’s very hard to find seed regeneration as plantlets are eaten by rabbits and hares. Also, microclimatic conditions inside the forest are altered because they’re only found in reduced fragments, so we don’t properly know the conditions it germinated in the past.”
Pérez assured that, in the case of this tree, there have been set out some ways of vegetative reproduction, but it requires natural conditions to strengthen its genetic heritage, and that’s why we must protect and study those places where adult seed specimens have been found.
There’s also a time scale problem in here, because we can save the species but, in the end, it will depend on climate conditions in its distribution area. Droguht increases the intensity of wildfires and they might manage to destroy stumps.
“Sometimes we might think that a species can be saved from extinction as long as we can even watch it enclosed in a zoo or a national park, but the life of a species includes satisfying genetic, biological and ecological variables that are not always considered,” pointed the specialist from CODEFF.
The case of Tomé, a discovery?
A few months ago, local and national press talked about a big discovery, in Tomé, where a queule forest was supposedly found.
“As Keule Foundation, we made a clarification regarding that the site located in Tomé was already known by many people for more than 25 years, especially in the commune and by public institutions. It was relatively kept unaltered despite being a small area of 0.1 hectares surrounded by eucalyptus.”
Dámaso Saavedra claimed that putting the species in the national level agenda was important, but the consequences of an unsupported story meant that queule populations in Tomé, Penco and Hualqui were ‘sacked’.
“Media coverage made people go, by good will, to collect queules to try to help, without knowning that the species doesn’t have an easy germination which has very few chances of succeeding. But, along with it, there were other collections of thousands of seeds at specific destinations that concern us the most, because it does cause a huge damage. Unfortunately, legislation doesn’t sanction fruit extraction.”
A project seeks to protect and conserve the queule
The Threatened Species Conservation project promotes good practices in agriculture, stockbreeding, forestry and tourism in order to protect threatened species in Maule, Ñuble, Bío Bío and Araucanía regions.
The inititative managed by the Ministry of Environment, implemented by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has the mission to protect four endangered species, with the queule among them.
The project seeks to establish relevant and scientifically necessary information regarding the population of this species and link it to communities.
In a first stage, we made the establishment and socialisation of the project through workshops where we published, for public service, municipalities, private organisms and communities in general, the main lineaments and importance it would have. It was also established a regional committee, in charge of recommending and suggesting within the threatened species conservation project.
The regional project coordinator, Fabiola Lara, indicated that it was begun the stage of implementing good practices for preserving queules in private lands. “During the second semester of this year, we will start the diffusion of the environmental education program in Pelluhue, Cobquecura, Penco, Tomé, Coelemu, Talcahuano, Los Álamos and Hualqui, communes where the species is found, and we will seek to expand it to those areas with queule groves.”
The work continued with on-site queule exploration, in both public and private lands, and the planning of coordinated actions between those involved at regional level, through workshops and meetings. A newer milestone was the establishment of a subcommittee of the tree species, formed by a group of national experts adivising the project.
Actions
Among the main actions, it’s hghlighted the joint work that seeks to protect and preserve the queule, endangered species endemic to Chile, which is done by the Regional Department of Environment in Bío Bío, the Regional Department of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) and the Centre for Seeds, Genetics and Entomology from CONAF.
The program’s main fields of action are the collection of seeds for nursery; production of queule plants, which will be used for ecological restoration or research; the establishment of a conservation bank in a private pilot property, and the development of a protocol for somatic embryogenesis in laboratories, which will allow the in vitro of the species.
The Regional Secretary of Environment in Bío Bío, Mario Dellanays, highlighted the collaborative work between the two institutions in favour of the queule, at the same time he relieved the Recovery, Conservation and Management plan (RECOGE) for the tree species, which will help gathering information of known populations, with the aim of determining their threat level, hence making the best strategy for its conservation.
Also, Pablo Uzúa, queule extensionist of the project, mentioned that it’s fundamental for the development of conservation strategies for the queule, the work done with small and mid-sized land owners, as a large quantity of trees is spread in these types of land, whether in small groves or isolated.
In 1995 the queule, endangered species, was declared ‘Natural Monument’ in Chile. Currently, private lands with queule groves have been identified in their natural distribution, especially in the coastal ranges around Cobquecura, where it has been recorded sexual reproduction of the species, which will allow the implementation of good practices that help reduce hazards in these places.