An Auburn University research team has completed the initial phase of its brown spot needle blight (BSNB) research study, delivering innovative tools and strategies to safeguard the region’s forest industry. Shown from left to right are the project team members, Joseph Fan, Lana Narine, Lori Eckhardt, J. Ryan Mitchell and Janna Willoughby.
Delivering actionable results
Auburn University has completed the initial phase of its brown spot needle blight (BSNB) research study, delivering actionable results to industry that will help tame the proliferation of the needle blight now decimating pine forests across the southeast.
A growing economic threat
Pine forests and industrial wood plantations in the southeastern U.S. are crucial to the region’s economic sustainability, particularly in Alabama, where forest products and related sectors generate more than $12.5 billion in sales and $1.5 billion in exports annually.
As a major commodity of the state and region, the continued introduction and spread of non-native insect pests and fungal pathogens, as well as the movement of native forest pests into forest ecosystems, can result in significant economic impacts.
Costs associated with forest damage across the U.S. were estimated at approximately $4.5 billion annually in 2023 and have only grown since then.
Currently, 58 of Alabama’s 67 counties are affected by needle blight diseases, and it is estimated that even a 50% needle blight infection rate in Alabama’s susceptible loblolly pine trees could result in economic losses of $2 billion.
Discolored needles are the first sign of infection. Pine needles appear scorched by fire, even though there has been no burn.
Phase I reveals valuable insights
The original research effort to address brown spot needle blight (BSNB), launched in August 2022 and supported by the U.S. Forest Service, was led by Lori Eckhardt, a professor of forest health in the College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment (CFWE), with other CFWE faculty, including Lana Narine, Janna Willoughby and Joseph Fan.
This phase of the study, which will conclude in December 2026, successfully established study plots across Alabama and trained graduate and undergraduate researchers, including four doctoral students, Jaden King, Swati Singh, Temitope Folorunso and Gabriel Silva, who co-led various components of the study, from leading field and lab research to mentoring undergraduate research students who also contributed to the work.
“The BSNB team produced a comprehensive, multi-year dataset across 22 plots, capturing tree growth, disease severity, physiological traits, environmental variables and spore dynamics,” said Eckhardt. “Early findings show that the disease severity increased most when it correlated with the stress level of the trees, evidenced by reduced growth and increased nutrient deficiencies.”
Narine, an associate professor of geospatial analytics, led the geospatial component of the research effort that improved methods for studying the disease from above using drones and advanced imaging technology. The team collected detailed images of the landscape and then used machine learning algorithms to detect and analyze the disease more effectively. This helped them better detect where the disease is occurring and how severe it is over large areas.
“Using this method, our team detected and mapped disease severity with over 90% accuracy,” said Narine, who mentors graduate researcher Swati Singh, whose work was central to investigating and reporting these findings. “This work creates the blueprint for a larger monitoring program. By proving how to accurately detect the disease, we now have the foundation to track its spread over much larger areas. This approach will help researchers and land managers identify problem areas more reliably.”
Under the leadership of Willoughby, an associate professor of population and conservation genetics, the researchers also made great progress in understanding the genomic and ecological complexity underlying needle blight symptoms, revealing that needle blight disease severity is influenced not just by a single fungus but by complex communities of fungi occurring together.
“Folorunso, Silva, and I studied nearly 100 fungal genomes, and the results suggest that how severe the disease becomes may depend on how many different fungi are present and how fungal communities differ among infected trees—not on a single “main” culprit,” Willoughby said. “Going forward, we will be digging deeper to understand how these fungi function under environmental stresses and which genes and pathways become active during infection, helping to explain why some infections are worse than others.”
Swati Singh, a doctoral student in the CFWE, uses a drone and advanced imaging technology to detect needle blight.
Defining a systems-level mitigation strategy
“Overall, this study gives industry a much clearer picture of what causes needle blight and how it spreads, which is critical for managing it effectively,” said Eckhardt. “Instead of treating needle blight as a simple problem with a single cause, the research shows it is a complex disease involving multiple fungi that interact with each other and the environment. That deeper understanding will help avoid one‑size‑fits‑all solutions that may not work.”
Because the project produced strong datasets and new tools, Eckhardt says that landowners will now have better ways to detect and monitor the disease early. With accurate mapping and monitoring the team anticipates that land managers, growers and foresters will be able to identify high‑risk areas sooner, concentrate resources where they’re needed most and avoid unnecessary treatments in healthy areas.
“This systems‑level approach—looking at genetics, environmental conditions and disease patterns together—helps us to better understand why outbreaks happen in some places but not others,” said Eckhardt. “This supports smarter decision‑making, such as adjusting management practices, timing interventions more effectively and reducing conditions that allow the disease to spread.”
Further, Eckhardt says the team has laid the groundwork for practical prevention and control strategies. By understanding how multiple pathogens work together, industry can develop more targeted treatments, improved monitoring protocols and better long‑term management plans that reduce disease spread rather than simply reacting after damage has occurred.
Just as importantly, the publications and methods generated by the scientists will ensure that scientists and industry professionals can continue using and building on this work, ultimately supporting ongoing innovation, improving resilience and helping protect productivity and environmental health over time.
As part of the project, the team trains educators and shares results with land managers to improve the likelihood the strategies and methods will be put into practice.
Phase II expands monitoring, detection and forest health solutions
With additional support from the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) through the State of Alabama, the team will continue its work over the next several years.
For the research team, which now includes Hao Chen, a CFWE assistant professor of forest genomics, and Annakay Newell, Extension specialist and CFWE assistant professor of forest health, the next phase of the study will be just as critical as the first. As they set forward, the long-term goal is to better understand where BSNB occurs, how it spreads and why it becomes severe in some places but not others.
Their plan is to study the environmental conditions—like weather, landscape features and forest conditions—that allow the disease to thrive. In addition, this phase will develop an operational monitoring system that integrates Earth observation data and AI-based detection for data-driven surveillance across landscapes. They are also hoping to identify specific fungal traits that make BSNB more dangerous and increase the chance that pine trees will die.
Another major goal is to develop easy‑to‑use tools that can detect harmful fungi early, especially in areas most at risk for BSNB. Alongside this, the project focuses on training educators and sharing results with land managers to improve the likelihood the research can be put into practice, a component of the project that is crucial for reducing the spread of the disease, and mitigating tree mortality.
“While challenging, together these efforts will help industry professionals and other stakeholders across the region improve forest health, reduce tree loss and support smarter land‑management decisions that will keep forests productive over the long term,” said Eckhardt.
