Resistance and tolerance in juvenile interior Douglas-fir trees Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca artificially inoculated with Armillaria ostoyae

Plants utilize two general strategies to cope with pathogen attack. They either limit or resist the pathogen (termed 'resistance') or they cope with the disease by surviving and growing (termed 'tolerance'). Both strategies tend to increase plant fitness; however, there are possible costs, trade-offs and interactions associated with each strategy. This study focused on five half-sib interior Douglas-fir families [Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco] that were putatively classified as either resistant or susceptible to Armillaria ostoyae in a previous greenhouse study of seedling families challenged with A. ostoyae. We compared their survival rates in the greenhouse study with results of juvenile trees from the same five families that were artificially inoculated in field conditions. Both resistance and tolerance appeared to be operating in the field test trees, and a possible trade-off between resistance and tolerance was detected. Significant differences were detected among the five families for stem radial growth following infection at the tree root collar. Compared with the putatively susceptible families, resistant families had smaller lesions and lower proportional root collar girdling. Tolerant families generally had larger lesions but demonstrated better growth when diseased than resistant families. One tolerant family that was a good survivor in the greenhouse survival study presented vertically shaped lesions that were large in area but had greatly reduced proportional root collar girdling. While a second family showed tolerant traits in the field study, its poor survival in the greenhouse study agreed with the large horizontally spreading lesions associated with high root collar girdling in the field study trees. Survival rankings of the five families in the greenhouse study mostly agreed with results from the field study based on the proportion of collar girdling among families. These host responses are discussed with respect to stability, quantity and quality of stands and products.