Chapter 9 - Woodboring beetle colonization of conifers killed by fire and bark beetles: implications for forest restoration and black-backed woodpecker conservation

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Forest health monitoring

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Woodboring beetles (Cerambycidae and Buprestidae) are common in coniferous forests of the Western United States, where they are considered secondary forest pests because they generally colonize trees killed or weakened by disturbance (Furniss and Carolin 1977), including wildfire and outbreaks of primary forest pests such as bark beetles (Scolytinae). Disturbances caused by wildfire and bark beetle outbreak (BBO) are expected to be increasingly common in the coming decades (Bentz and others 2010, Kitzberger and others 2017), providing more potential habitat for woodboring beetles. Although woodboring beetle activities can reduce timber values (Lowell and Cahill 1996), woodborers also contribute to ecological services such as snag decomposition and nutrient recycling (Kahl and others 2017), and serve as prey for early-seral habitat specialists like the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), a species of management interest (Siegel and others 2018) that feeds primarily on the larvae of woodboring beetles (Murphy and Lehnhausen 1998). Understanding how woodborers respond to different types of forest disturbance and stand characteristics is important for predicting the response of forest communities to changes in the disturbance regime, and for designing restoration and management efforts that maximize the ecological services provided by woodborers.

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