Tree deaths affect disease-carrying ticks: Scientists study whether there is a link between tree deaths and Lyme disease

Over the past 15 years, an invasive plant disease has left a patchwork of dead and dying trees in California's majestic coastal forests. But the loss of trees is changing more than just panoramic views: The number of ticks that can carry a disease that causes painful joint swelling, fatigue and even neurological damage is growing - a result of the gaps created in the forest when trees die, a recent study found.

To determine how the loss of trees affects ticks, their hosts and the Lyme disease they might carry, researchers at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York have embarked on a multi-year study of animal populations in a North San Francisco Bay forest infected with Sudden Oak Death.

read more in the San Jose Mercury-News