Plant pathology
Much of our applied research concerns the identification of plant pathogens. This may be in the context of newly recorded pathogens for New Zealand, reviews on groups of long-recognised pathogens, and the potential for managing plant pathogens in the control of weeds.
Amongst the most significant ecosystem impacts of fungi and microorganisms is to cause disease. The diseases caused by indigenous species in areas of natural vegetation are part of the normally functioning ecosystem. In managed systems, such as farms, orchards, and plantation forests, with intensive monocultures of a single kind of plant, the balance between host plant and pathogen is often lost.