Resilience of southern Yukon boreal forests to spruce beetle outbreaks

Campbell, Elizabeth M.; Antos, Joseph A.; vanAkker, Lara

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2018.10.037

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Consistent with other studies following bark beetle outbreaks (Veblen et al , DeRose and Long , Campbell et al ), height growth release of surviving advance regeneration, rather than new establishment, will likely supplement surviving adult trees in forming the next forest canopy (Fig. ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…). The spatial overlap of two bark beetle outbreaks did cause important shifts in species composition, but did not appear to compromise mechanisms of physiognomic recovery to forest, which supports findings from studies examining forest recovery after single‐species bark beetle outbreaks (Diskin et al , Redmond and Kelsey , Campbell et al ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Sufficient abundances of live trees for forest recovery is commonly observed following individual (DeRose and Long , Diskin et al , Redmond and Kelsey , Campbell et al ) or multiple bark beetle outbreaks (present study), which strongly contrasts with very low densities of trees for postfire forest recovery in many recently burned dry forests (Stevens‐Rumann et al , Davis et al , Rodman et al a). Key differences in recovery mechanisms between wildfire and bark beetle outbreaks may buffer outbreaks from the effects of climate warming for the next several decades.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…Similar to other studies examining the effects of mortality from disturbances on forest recovery (Windmuller‐Campione and Long , Campbell et al ), we assess the potential for recovery to a forest vegetation type (i.e., physiognomic recovery) following SB and WBBB outbreaks and herbivory, rather than recovery to the same relative species dominance prior to the outbreaks (i.e., compositional recovery), using a minimum tree density threshold. We characterize the potential for recovery of forest cover based on the assumption that higher live tree densities, especially of individuals >1.4 m tall, will likely lead to more rapid recovery.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest recovery following synchronous outbreaks of spruce and western balsam bark beetle is slowed by ungulate browsing

Andrus

Hart

Veblen

2020

Ecology

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Understanding how severe disturbances and their interactions affect forests is key to projecting ecological change under a warming climate. Substantial increases in some biotic disturbances, such as bark beetle outbreaks, in temperate forest ecosystemsmay compromise recovery to a forest vegetation type (i.e., physiognomic recovery or resilience), especially if subsequent biotic disturbances (e.g., herbivory) alter recovery mechanisms. From 2005 to 2017, severe outbreaks (>90% mortality) of spruce bark beetles (SB, Dendroctonus rufipennis) affected Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) across 325,000 ha of spruce and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) forest in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA. Concurrently, an outbreak of western balsam bark beetle (WBBB, Dryocoetes confuses) infested subalpine fir across at least 47,000 of these hectares. We explored the capacity of 105 stands affected by one or two bark beetle outbreaks and browsing of juvenile trees by ungulates to return to a forest vegetation type in the context of pre-outbreak forest conditions and topography. Nine initial forest trajectories (i.e., at least several decades) were identified from four pre-outbreak forest types affected by three biotic disturbances that occurred at different spatial scales and severities. Most stands (86%) contained surviving nonhost adult trees in the main canopy (fir and aspen [Populus tremuloides]) and many surviving juveniles of all species, implying that they are currently on a trajectory for physiognomic recovery. Stands composed exclusively of large-diameter spruce were affected by a severe SB outbreak and were most vulnerable to a transition to a low-density forest, below regional stocking levels (<370 trees/ha). Greater pre-outbreak stand structural complexity and species diversity were key traits of stands with a higher potential for physiognomic recovery. However, all multispecies stands shifted in relative composition of the main canopy to nonhost species, suggesting low potential for compositional recovery over the next several decades. Most post-outbreak stands (86%) exceeded regional stocking levels with trees taller than the browse zone (<2 m). As such, ungulate browsing on over half of all juveniles will primarily affect the rate of infilling of the forest canopy and preferential browsing of more palatable species will influence the composition of the future forest canopy.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 53%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Forest recovery following synchronous outbreaks of spruce and western balsam bark beetle is slowed by ungulate browsing

Andrus

Hart

Veblen

2020

Ecology

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“…Increasing thaw depth and shrinkage of permafrost-underlain areas impact growth and physiological processes of the trees through drying of the rooting zone, driving decreases in the productivity of black spruce-dominated sub-Arctic forests and reduction of sap flow and ET (Patankar et al, 2015;Sniderhan and Baltzer, 2016). At the same time, however, the conversion from forest to wetland associated with permafrost thaw acts to expand areas of open, freely evaporating water surfaces, counteracting this effect (e.g., Carpino et al, 2018). Warren et al (2018) demonstrated that at Scotty Creek (Fig.…”

Section: Process Interactions Changes and Their Influence On Water mentioning

confidence: 99%

Summary and synthesis of Changing Cold Regions Network (CCRN) research in the interior of western Canada – Part 2: Future change in cryosphere, vegetation, and hydrology

DeBeer¹,

Wheater²,

Pomeroy³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. The interior of western Canada, like many similar cold mid- to high-latitude regions worldwide, is undergoing extensive and rapid climate and environmental change, which may accelerate in the coming decades. Understanding and predicting changes in coupled climate–land–hydrological systems are crucial to society, yet limited by lack of understanding of changes in cold region process responses and interactions, along with their representation in most current generation land surface and hydrological models. It is essential to consider the underlying processes and base predictive models on the proper physics, especially under conditions of non-stationarity where the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future and system trajectories can be unexpected. These challenges were forefront in the recently completed Changing Cold Regions Network (CCRN), which assembled and focused a wide range of multi-disciplinary expertise to improve the understanding, diagnosis, and prediction of change over the cold interior of western Canada. CCRN advanced knowledge of fundamental cold region ecological and hydrological processes through observation and experimentation across a network of highly instrumented research basins and other sites. Significant efforts were made to improve the functionality and process representation, based on this improved understanding, within the fine-scale Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling (CRHM) platform and the large-scale Modélisation Environmentale Communautaire (MEC) – Surface and Hydrology (MESH) model. These models were, and continue to be, applied under past and projected future climates, and under current and expected future land and vegetation cover configurations to diagnose historical change and predict possible future hydrological responses. This second of two articles synthesizes the nature and understanding of cold region processes and Earth system responses to future climate, as advanced by CCRN. These include changing precipitation and moisture feedbacks to the atmosphere; altered snow regimes, changing balance of snowfall and rainfall, and glacier loss; vegetation responses to climate and the loss of ecosystem resilience to wildfire and disturbance; thawing permafrost and its influence on landscapes and hydrology; groundwater storage and cycling, and its connections to surface water; and stream and river discharge as influenced by the various drivers of hydrological change. Collective insights, expert elicitation, and model application are used to provide a synthesis of this change over the CCRN region for the late-21st century.

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A specialized forest carnivore navigates landscape-level disturbance: Canada lynx in spruce-beetle impacted forests

Squires

Holbrook

Olson

et al. 2020

Forest Ecology and Management

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Resilience of southern Yukon boreal forests to spruce beetle outbreaks

Cited by 15 publications

References 80 publications

Forest recovery following synchronous outbreaks of spruce and western balsam bark beetle is slowed by ungulate browsing

Forest recovery following synchronous outbreaks of spruce and western balsam bark beetle is slowed by ungulate browsing

Summary and synthesis of Changing Cold Regions Network (CCRN) research in the interior of western Canada – Part 2: Future change in cryosphere, vegetation, and hydrology

A specialized forest carnivore navigates landscape-level disturbance: Canada lynx in spruce-beetle impacted forests

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