Methodological approaches to outline control strategies of cork oak decline in Sardinia (Italy).

The need to define suitable measures in order to overcome the increasing spread of
cork oak decline in Sardinia has become of primary importance. To date, 60 declining areas all over
the region have been found. However, it is very difficult to outline common control strategies
because of the complex etiology of this disease and the remarkable variability of environmental and sylvo-cultural conditions of the different cork oak stands. Therefore, a research programme with the
following objectives has been set up to : 1) characterize the vegetational typologies of declining cork
oak stands; 2) create a net of stations, representative for each typology, useful for monitoring the
phenomenon; 3) carry out integrated and exhaustive studies of climatic, edaphic, vegetational and
sylvo-cultural characteristics in each station; 4) compare the results on the basis of disease
evolution. In this paper, the methodology adopted and results of surveys carried out over a four-year
period in one station located in North Sardinia are reported.