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Forest Sciences

Clark University

Picea engelmannii

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Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

The Relative Importance Of Tree And Stand Properties In Susceptibility To Spruce Beetle Outbreak In The Mid-20th Century, Felicia Bakaj, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Thomas T. Veblen, Dominik Kulakowski Jan 2016

The Relative Importance Of Tree And Stand Properties In Susceptibility To Spruce Beetle Outbreak In The Mid-20th Century, Felicia Bakaj, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Thomas T. Veblen, Dominik Kulakowski

Geography

Tree susceptibility to potentially lethal agents is determined not only by attributes of individual trees, but also by neighborhood effects at a range of scales. For example, effects of disturbances on individual trees are often contingent on the size, configuration, and other properties of neighboring trees. Wildfires can modify postfire properties of individual trees as well as of entire forest stands, both of which can affect subsequent ecological processes, including subsequent disturbances. In recent years, much has been learned about how disturbances interact, but numerous questions concerning underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. For example, the relative importance of forest properties at …


Interactions Among Spruce Beetle Disturbance, Climate Change And Forest Dynamics Captured By A Forest Landscape Model, Christian Temperli, Thomas T. Veblen, Sarah J. Hart, Dominik Kulakowski, Alan J. Tepley Jan 2015

Interactions Among Spruce Beetle Disturbance, Climate Change And Forest Dynamics Captured By A Forest Landscape Model, Christian Temperli, Thomas T. Veblen, Sarah J. Hart, Dominik Kulakowski, Alan J. Tepley

Geography

The risk of bark beetle outbreaks is widely predicted to increase because of a warming climate that accelerates temperature-driven beetle population growth and drought stress that impairs host tree defenses. However, few if any studies have explicitly evaluated climatically enhanced beetle population dynamics in relation to climate-driven changes in forest composition and structure that may alter forest suitability for beetle infestation. We synthesized current understanding of the interactions among climate, spruce beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis) and forest dynamics to parameterize and further advance the bark beetle module of a dynamic forest landscape model (LandClim) that also integrates fire and wind disturbance …


Negative Feedbacks On Bark Beetle Outbreaks: Widespread And Severe Spruce Beetle Infestation Restricts Subsequent Infestation, Sarah J. Hart, Thomas T. Veblen, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Dominik Kulakowski Jan 2015

Negative Feedbacks On Bark Beetle Outbreaks: Widespread And Severe Spruce Beetle Infestation Restricts Subsequent Infestation, Sarah J. Hart, Thomas T. Veblen, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Dominik Kulakowski

Geography

Understanding disturbance interactions and their ecological consequences remains a major challenge for research on the response of forests to a changing climate. When, where, and how one disturbance may alter the severity, extent, or occurrence probability of a subsequent disturbance is encapsulated by the concept of linked disturbances. Here, we evaluated 1) how climate and forest habitat variables, including disturbance history, interact to drive 2000s spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) infestation of Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) across the Southern Rocky Mountains; and 2) how previous spruce beetle infestation affects subsequent infestation across the Flat Tops Wilderness in northwestern Colorado, which experienced …