How climate change reshuffles forest diseases, and new DNA tests help track them

A systematic review maps fungal, viral, and other forest pathogens and finds early-warning DNA methods are advancing faster than real-world management.

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

The review examined 142 peer-reviewed studies on forest pathogen biology, how outbreaks spread, diagnostic approaches, and management strategies. Fungal pathogens made up the largest share of the research, but oomycetes and nematodes were also strongly represented.

Across pathogen groups, the authors report evidence that drought stress and temperature-driven range shifts can increase pathogen pressure. They also describe how molecular diagnostics—such as environmental DNA monitoring, DNA amplification tests, and metagenomic sequencing—have moved detection toward earlier, landscape-scale warning. However, the authors find an evidence-to-practice gap remains in how these tools are used within integrated forest management.

Cross-kingdom disease patterns and tools

The authors synthesized 142 peer-reviewed studies (assessed for methodological quality using the ROBINS-I tool). Fungal pathogens accounted for 80 studies (~56.3%), while oomycetes accounted for 27 (~19.0%) and nematodes for 31 (~21.8%). Research coverage was biased toward Europe and East Asia, leaving tropical plantation pathosystems under-represented. Climate change was identified as a pervasive modifier of pathogen pressure, with documentation of drought-induced stress and temperature-driven range expansions across all four pathogen groups. The review reports that molecular diagnostics—including environmental DNA surveillance, Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP), and high-throughput sequencing metagenomics—have enabled a shift from symptom-based detection to prospective early warning. The review also proposes a Pathogen Pressure Index (PPI) framework to link drivers, pathogens, and outcomes for research prioritization. It notes a near-absence of viral pathology research and that a key limitation across many studies was serious confounding in plantation and climate-change research.

Where monitoring and policy fall short

Forest diseases are not static: as climate and human activity change, pathogens may find new hosts and regions. By compiling cross-kingdom evidence, the review highlights where surveillance and diagnostics are improving and where knowledge gaps remain—especially for viruses and for tropical forest disease monitoring—information that can guide future research and policy priorities.

Systematic review limits and gaps

This is a systematic review of 142 peer-reviewed articles covering 2018–2026, following PRISMA guidelines and using ROBINS-I to assess methodological quality. The main limitations highlighted by the review are structural challenges in field studies, leading to serious confounding in plantation and climate-change research. The review also reports geographic gaps in the underlying literature (notably under-representation of tropical plantation systems) and a lack of viral pathology research.

Brain communication patterns separated autistic and non-autistic people with 91% accuracy

Researchers found that information flow between major brain networks differed between autistic participants and non-autistic controls. An artificial-intelligence system classified the two groups with a mean accuracy of 91% across cross-validation, but the study does not establish a clinical biomarker.

6 hours ago·3 views

Biology

A faster way to test designed proteins could bring each test down to $5

Researchers describe a streamlined workflow for producing and testing designed proteins at much greater scale than standard laboratory methods. By using pooled DNA and partial automation, the approach could characterize more than 1,000 designs at about $5 per construct.

2 days ago·35 views

Biology

A rarely detected bat is confirmed on remote Flores Island

Researchers confirmed two bat species on Flores Island in the Azores, including Nyctalus azoreum, which had not previously been recorded there. Acoustic monitoring found that Pipistrellus maderensis was widespread, while N. azoreum was detected at only a few sites and showed very low activity.

2 days ago·13 views