Thesis: Exploring the impacts of Phytophthora agathidicida on soil bacterial communities associated with kauri (Agathis australis)

This study used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to examine the impact of P. agathidicida on the soil bacteria of ~700 kauri trees in the Waitākere Ranges, an area severely affected by dieback disease. Healthy and infected kauri trees were found to possess significantly different core soil bacterial communities that are deterministically selected by the environment of infected trees. The roles of environmental, climatic and soil physicochemical variables on soil bacterial composition were explored to determine which caused or are related to the differences in soil bacterial communities observed between healthy and infected trees.