Characteristics of forest legacies following two mountain pine beetle outbreaks in British Columbia, Canada

Author:

Alfaro René I.11,van Akker Lara11,Hawkes Brad11

Affiliation:

1. Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 W-Burnside Rd, Victoria, BC V8Z 1M5, Canada.

Abstract

The mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera, Curculionidae), a native insect of North America, periodically reaches population sizes that cause serious economic impact to the forest industry in western North America. The most recent outbreak in British Columbia (BC), Canada, which began in the late 1990s, is only now (2015) abating, after causing unprecedented tree mortality in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex. Loudon) forests. In this paper, we make use of permanent research plots to report on the condition of lodgepole pine forests in the Chilcotin Plateau of central BC, which underwent two fully documented mountain pine beetle outbreaks. In this region, the first outbreak started in the late 1970s and lasted until the mid-1980s; the second outbreak began in the early 2000s and ended in 2010. We measured the impacts of these outbreaks in terms of tree mortality and describe the characteristics of the legacies that remain following these outbreaks, including survivors in various canopy layers and levels of existing and new regeneration. We provide evidence in support of the existence of postdisturbance legacies that classify into five distinct stand structure types. Abundant regeneration and surviving intermediate canopy layers in most stands indicate that management actions to restock pine stands in this area will not likely be necessary. The information provided by this study is important for estimating future forest development and timber supply and for forest planning and management.

Publisher

Canadian Science Publishing

Subject

Ecology,Forestry,Global and Planetary Change

Reference19 articles.

1. Alfaro, R.I., Campbell, E.M., and Hawkes, B.C. 2009. Historical frequency, intensity and extent of mountain pine beetle disturbance in British Columbia. Mountain Pine Beetle working paper 2009-30. Mountain Pine Beetle Initiative PO # 2.05. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre, 506 West Burnside Road, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

2. Stand recovery and self-organization following large-scale mountain pine beetle induced canopy mortality in northern forests

3. The disturbance of forest ecosystems: the ecological basis for conservative management

4. Influence of fire and mountain pine beetle on the dynamics of lodgepole pine stands in British Columbia, Canada

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3