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Insects and Fire

Displaying 1 - 10 of 51

Budworms, beetles and wildfire: Disturbance interactions influence the likelihood of insect-caused disturbances at a subcontinental scale

Year of Publication
2024
Publication Type

Irruptive forest insects are a leading biotic disturbance across temperate and boreal forests. Outbreaks of forest insects are becoming more frequent and extensive due to anthropogenic drivers (e.g. climate and land-use), perhaps increasing the likelihood that forests will experience multiple insect-caused disturbances.

Long-term efficacy of fuel reduction and restoration treatments in Northern Rockies dry forests

Year of Publication
2024
Publication Type

Fuel and restoration treatments seeking to mitigate the likelihood of uncharacteristic high-severity wildfires in forests with historically frequent, low-severity fire regimes are increasingly common, but long-term treatment effects on fuels, aboveground carbon, plant community structure, ecosystem resilience, and other ecosystem attributes are understudied.

Tree resistance to drought and bark beetle-associated mortality following thinning and prescribed fire treatments

Year of Publication
2023
Publication Type

Long-term trends show increased tree mortality over the last several decades, coinciding with above-average temperatures, high climatic water deficits, and bark beetle outbreaks. California’s recent unprecedented drought (2012–2016) highlights the need to evaluate whether thinning and prescribed fire can improve individual tree drought resistance and reduce bark beetle-associated mortality.

Fuel Profiles and Biomass Carbon Following Bark Beetle Outbreaks: Insights for Disturbance Interactions from a Historical Silvicultural Experiment

Year of Publication
2023
Publication Type

Anticipating consequences of disturbance interactions on ecosystem structure and function is a critical management priority as disturbance activity increases with warming climate. Across the Northern Hemisphere, extensive tree mortality from recent bark beetle outbreaks raises concerns about potential fire behavior and post-fire forest function.

Future climate risks from stress, insects and fire across US forests

Year of Publication
2022
Publication Type

Forests are currently a substantial carbon sink globally. Many climate change mitigation strategies leverage forest preservation and expansion, but rely on forests storing carbon for decades to centuries. Yet climate-driven disturbances pose critical risks to the long-term stability of forest carbon.

Repeated fall prescribed fire in previously thinned Pinus ponderosa increases growth and resistance to other disturbances

Year of Publication
2021
Publication Type

In western North America beginning in the late 19th century, fire suppression and other factors resulted in dense ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests that are now prone to high severity wildfire, insect attack, and root diseases. Thinning and prescribed fire are commonly used to remove small trees, fire-intolerant tree species, and shrubs, and to reduce surface and aerial fuels.

Repeated fall prescribed fire in previously thinned Pinus ponderosa increases growth and resistance to other disturbances

Year of Publication
2021
Publication Type

In western North America beginning in the late 19th century, fire suppression and other factors resulted in denseponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests that are now prone to high severity wildfire, insect attack, and rootdiseases. Thinning and prescribed fire are commonly used to remove small trees, fire-intolerant tree species, andshrubs, and to reduce surface and aerial fuels.

Beyond red crowns: complex changes in surface and crown fuels and their interactions 32 years following mountain pine beetle epidemics in south-central Oregon, USA

Year of Publication
2019
Publication Type

Background Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins; MPB), a bark beetle native to western North America, has caused vast areas of tree mortality over the last several decades. The majority of this mortality has been in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon) forests and has heightened concerns over the potential for extreme fire behavior across large landscapes.

Fire deficits have increased drought‐sensitivity in dry conifer forests; fire frequency and tree‐ring carbon isotope evidence from Central Oregon

Year of Publication
2019
Publication Type

A century of fire suppression across the Western US has led to more crowded forests and increased competition for resources. Studies of forest thinning or stand conditions after mortality events have provided indirect evidence for how competition can promote drought stress and predispose forests to severe fire and/or bark beetle outbreaks.