Factors Affecting the Disease Severity of Alternaria Blackspot In Natural Brassica rapa Populations On the California and Oregon Coasts

Abstract Fungal disease has important effects in natural and agricultural plant populations; however, we are still uncovering factors that influence severity in these systems. Understanding these factors is especially important because it has been predicted that climate change will increase fungal disease widely as a result of changes in precipitation. Here, we investigate the role of water availability and other ecological variables in determining disease severity of a foliar fungal disease. For this study, we focused on natural populations of an important annual, herbaceous plant, Brassica rapa and its fungal disease, Alternaria blackspot. We explored three hypotheses: (1) The factors that drive disease severity differ early in the growing season compared to late in the growing season. (2) Disease severity patterns for this fungus are driven by water availability to a greater extent than other ecological variables. (3) Disease severity increases with plant density. To address these hypotheses, data were...