Effects of Crown Scorch on Ponderosa Pine Resistance to Bark Beetles in Northern Arizona

By K. Wallin, Thomas E. Kolb, Kjerstin R. Skov, M. Wagner. 2003

142 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract We conducted a study linking mechanistic relationships among fire injury, tree physiological condition, and bark beetle (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) susceptibility. Crown scorch of 40 Pinus ponderosa trees was estimated in a naturally regenerated stand that was thinned and prescribed burned in winter and early spring 2000. Net photosynthetic rate (Pn) of undamaged foliage was higher in heavily and severely than moderately and lightly scorched trees. This trend was more pronounced in the dry season (June) than the wet season (August). This suggests the mechanism underlying the increase in Pn was an improvement in water relations. This was also supported by differences observed in predawn water potential and stomatal conductance (gs). Constitutive resin volume did not differ among crown scorch classes in June, but was negatively related to crown scorch intensity in September. This suggests that constitutive resin was formed and stored before fire injury, and therefore not strongly affected by crown scorch levels in June. Induced resin production (resin produced after depletion of constitutive resin) generally decreased with increasing crown scorch in both June and September. Induced resin appeared to be related to carbon available for resin synthesis. The proportion of successful colonization attempts by Ips spp. and Dendroctonus spp. was low throughout the season. Colonization of Ips sp. and Dendroctonus spp. was not spatially separated in host trees. Colonization attempts were generally positively related to intensity of crown scorch in both pheromone and no-pheromone treatments. This finding suggests that pheromones attracted insects to the tree, but host physiological condition or other factors ultimately determined host colonization. Our results also suggest that intensity of crown scorch may affect colonization attempts of Ips and Dendroctonus spp. on P. ponderosa trees.

Subfields: Ecology, Genetics, Insect Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c00b6655f615d9358bcfb889047b665917177111

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Citations in the corpus

Restoring Fire to Long‐Unburned Pinus palustris Ecosystems: Novel Fire Effects and Consequences for Long‐Unburned Ecosystems (2005, background): “Past work on southeastern (Davidson & Hayes 1999) and western U.S. conifers (Covington et al. 1997; Ryan 2000; McHugh et al. 2003; Wallin et al. 2003, 2004) has demonstrated that increased physiological stress renders trees more susceptible to pest and pathogen attack.”
Bark Beetle Attacks on Ponderosa Pine Following Fire in Northern Arizona (2003, background): “Moreover, understanding of the role of Þre in bark beetle populations is limited because many factors may insuence bark beetle colonization and performance in Þre-damaged trees (e.g., Miller and Keen 1960, McCullough et al. 1998, DeNitto et al. 2000, Wallin et al. 2003 ).”
Tree mortality from fire and bark beetles following early and late season prescribed fires in a Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest (2006, background): “Work in a variety of systems has generally shown that measures of fire intensity are positively associated with tree susceptibility to attack (Ryan and Amman, 1994; Sullivan et al., 2003; Wallin et al., 2003).”
Pine-oak forest dynamics five years after ecological restoration treatments, Arizona, USA (2005, background): “Delayed tree mortality is common after fire, both from heat injury and post-fire bark beetle attacks (McHugh and Kolb, 2003; Wallin et al., 2003).”
Growth, carbon‐isotope discrimination, and drought‐associated mortality across a Pinus ponderosa elevational transect (2010, background): “Likewise, defense against insect attack requires sufficient carbon reserves to generate defensive compounds and sufficient phloem pressure to occlude insect entry holes (Coley et al., 1985; Cobb et al., 1997; Wallin et al., 2003; McDowell et al., 2007).”
Prescribed Fire Effects on Bark Beetle Activity and Tree Mortality in Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests (2008, background): “Severe crown damage from fire can weaken tree defense (resin production) against bark beetles, making them susceptible to attack (Wallin et al., 2003).”
Effects of fire and mechanical wounding on Pinus resinosa resin defenses, beetle attacks, and pathogens (2006, unknown): “Qualitative differences in the amount of preformed resin are known to affect the reproductive success of some species of bark beetles (Reeve et al., 1995), and is generally assumed to be relevant to Ips (Wallin and Raffa, 2001; Wallin et al., 2003).”
Long-term impacts of stand management on ponderosa pine physiology and bark beetle abundance in northern Arizona: A replicated landscape study (2005, background): “In contrast, severe defoliation because of crown scorch during fire decreases ponderosa pine resin production and increases bark beetle attacks and success (Wallin et al., 2003).”
Carbon and nitrogen cycling immediately following bark beetle outbreaks in southwestern ponderosa pine forests (2008, background): “However, beetles typically reproduce in trees that are weakened by physiological stresses, such as prolonged drought (Kolb et al., 1998; Samman and Logan, 2000; Wallin et al., 2003), and outbreaks tend to occur in dense stands (Samman and Logan, 2000; Fettig et al.”
Mechanisms of plant survival and mortality during drought: why do some plants survive while others succumb to drought? (2008, background): “, 2004), or carbon starvation, such as by increasing carbon loss to resin production (Wallin et al., 2003).”