Cork harvest planning and climate: High air humidity favors availability of airborne inoculum of Diplodia corticola

The canker disease caused by Diplodia corticola is one of the most important emerging pathologies cork oak (Quercus suber) in western Europe. fungus dispersed borer insects, although it also thought that spores can be wind and rain. aim this study was to evaluate presence airborne inoculum D. managed stands during harvesting season. Semi-passive spore traps were set eight sampling plots Catalonia (north-eastern Spain) summer 2020. Traps replaced every week number corticolas per event estimated based on a specific nested-qPCR protocol. Spatial-temporal distribution accumulation along areas analyzed using generalized additive models (GAMs). availability resulted rather low with noticeable peaks some sampled areas. fitted GAM revealed positive effect high air humidity period spores. This represents first attempt model release pathogen, provides insights for developing control strategies precise timing operations.