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Author(s):
Thomas J. Parker, Karen M. Clancy, Robert L. Mathiasen
Year Published:

Cataloging Information

Topic(s):
Fire Ecology
Insects & Disease
Fire & Bark Beetles
Fire & Wildlife
Invertebrates
Mountain pine beetles
Fuels
Fuel Treatments & Effects
Prescribed Fire-use treatments
Recovery after fire
Ecosystem(s):
Subalpine wet spruce-fir forest, Subalpine dry spruce-fir forest, Montane wet mixed-conifer forest, Montane dry mixed-conifer forest, Ponderosa pine woodland/savanna

NRFSN number: 8120
FRAMES RCS number: 4856
Record updated:

Natural and recurring disturbances caused by fire, native forest insects and pathogens have interacted for millennia to create and maintain forests dominated by seral or pioneering species of conifers in the interior regions of the western United States and Canada. Changes in fire suppression and other factors in the last century have altered the species composition and increased the density of trees in many western forests, leading to concomitant changes in how these three disturbance agents interact. Two- and three-way interactions are reviewed that involve fire, insects and pathogens in these forests, including fire-induced pathogen infection and insect attack, the effects of tree mortality from insects and diseases on fuel accumulation, and efforts to model these interactions. The emerging concern is highlighted regarding how the amount and distribution of bark beetle-caused tree mortality will be affected by large-scale restoration of these fire-adapted forest ecosystems via prescribed fire. The effects of fire on soil insects and pathogens, and on biodiversity of ground-dwelling arthropods, are examined. The effects of fire suppression on forest susceptibility to insects and pathogens, are discussed, as is the use of prescribed fire to control forest pests.

Citation

Parker, Thomas J.; Clancy, Karen M.; Mathiasen, Robert L. 2006. Interactions among fire, insects, and pathogens in coniferous forests of the interior western United States and Canada. Agricultural and Forest Entomology. 8: 167-189.

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