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View the FRAMES recordPost-fire forest dynamics and climate variability affect spatial and temporal properties of spruce beetle outbreaks on a Sky Island mountain range
The authors reconstructed the species composition and structure of Engelmann spruce forest stand populations over a 319-year period between stand-replacing fire to determine how changes in the stand structure of spruce over time affect the size and severity of spruce beetle outbreaks.
The authors found that spruce beetle outbreaks expanded coincident with increasing populations of spruce starting 94 years after the last stand-replacing fire and remained relatively small for another century. However, with the onset of fire exclusion, the increased density of spruce-fir has resulted in longer outbreak durations in the present century.
Fire and Ecosystem Effects Linkages
The authors found that spruce beetle outbreaks expanded coincident with increasing populations of spruce starting 94 years after the last stand-replacing fire and remained relatively small for another century. However, with the onset of fire exclusion, the increased density of spruce-fir has resulted in longer outbreak durations in the present century.
The authors found that spruce beetle outbreaks expanded coincident with increasing populations of spruce starting 94 years after the last stand-replacing fire and remained relatively small for another century. However, with the onset of fire exclusion, the increased density of spruce-fir has resulted in longer outbreak durations in the present century.