JRSI PAPER and VIDEOS with related  MIT NEWS   and MIT Spotlight

In this study, our results show how the effect of leaf compliance and its careful quantification can account for changes of contamination range by a factor of up to four. For the same plant spacing density in a monoculture field, a change in the size or compliance of the foliage could then quadruple the epidemic propagation speed. Moreover, our results suggest that alternating the position of plants of different species, but with carefully selected complimentary leaf compliance parameters could halt epidemic onset.

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