Disease in Natural Plant Populations, Communities, and Ecosystems: Insights into Ecological and Evolutionary Processes

摘要

This paper discusses the following: effects of diseases on individual plants and plant populations, effects of diseases on the number of species in a plant community and their relative abundance, effects of key environmental variables on plant diseases, and the impact of changing global environment on the role of diseases. Future directions in research on the ecological dimension of plant diseases are briefly covered.