VIEW ARTICLE

Ecology and Epidemiology

The Law of the Minimum and the Relation Between Pathogen, Weather, and Disease. Paul E. Waggoner, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT 06504; W. A. Norvell(2), and D. J. Royle(3). (2)The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT 06504; (3)Wye College (University of London), Wye, Ashford, Kent TN25 5AH, U.K. Phytopathology 70:59-64. Accepted for publication 23 July 1979. Copyright 1980 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-70-59.

To provide an alternative to multiple linear regression for estimating the effect of inoculum and environmental factors upon disease in the field, a method of fitting the Law of the Minimum was developed and tested with hop downy mildew and wheat leaf rust. The estimates of the effects of the factors by the Law varied less among samples of observations and resembled the effects measured in controlled experiments more closely than did the estimates of the parameters by multiple linear regression.