Abiotic Diseases

Abiotic diseases are just that: diseases caused by non-living agents.  Technically we can call those agents ‘pathogens’, but most people reserve that term for living agents of disease. The term “pathogen” becomes even less wieldy when abiotic diseases are caused by a deficiency, such as that of water or nutrients.

Included are some cases that can be characterized as injury (as opposed to disease).  Isn’t it great how we make a big deal about the definition of disease, then we just go ahead and mush it together with injury?  ๐Ÿ˜‰

Actually, there is a good reason for learning about different sorts of injury when learning forest pathology.  Forest pathologists are called upon to diagnose every tree abnormality on the planet except insect damage.  We need to recognize some of the common, and even not-so-common, types of injury.

This topic is divided among several pages: