Dagnosing Acute Oak Decline Using Ground Penetrating Radar

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) of trees have rapidly increase during the last 20 years due to modern socio-economic factors such as global timber trade and international travelling [1,2]. Currently, the most dominant EIDs affecting the European forests are the ash dieback [1], the Xylella Fastidiosa [3] and the acute oak decline (AOD) [4]. AOD is a bacterial infection that can lead to tree mortality within 3–5 years [4] and has rapidly spread in the United Kingdom since its first outbreak in 2012 [5]. Monitoring modern EIDs such as AOD requires new forestry approaches and modern detection schemes [2]. To this effect, ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been suggested as a diagnostic tool against AOD [5]. GPR is a non-destructive method that has the potential to detect tree-decay in a non-intrusive manner [5].