Canadian Forest Service Publications
Insect disturbances in forest ecosystems. 2015. Kneeshaw, D.; Sturtevant, B.R.; Cooke, B.; Work, T.; Pureswaran, D.; DeGrandpre, L.; MacLean, D. Chapter 7 in K.S.-H. Peh, R.T. Corlett and Y. Bergeron, eds. Routledge Handbook of Forest Ecology. Taylor & Francis Group, New York, NY.
Year: 2015
Issued by: Northern Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 36427
Language: English
Availability: Not available through the CFS (click for more information).
Additional information:
Abstract
About the Book
This comprehensive handbook provides a unique resource covering all aspects of forest ecology from a global perspective. It covers both natural and managed forests, from boreal, temperate, sub-tropical and tropical regions of the world. The book is divided into seven parts, addressing the following themes:
•forest types
•forest dynamics
•forest flora and fauna
•energy and nutrients
•forest conservation and management
•forests and climate change
•human impacts on forest ecology
While each chapter can stand alone as a suitable resource for a lecture or seminar, the complete book provides an essential reference text for a wide range of students of ecology, environmental science, forestry, geography and natural resource management. Contributors include leading authorities from all parts of the world.
Plain Language Summary
The forested area affected by insect outbreaks in Canada, the United States, and Europe is greater than that disturbed by fire or harvesting. We review the role of insects as disturbance agents in forested ecosystems around the world. We discuss patterns of occurrence and population dynamics for several important outbreak species, from grazing caterpillars that feed externally on foliage to bark beetles that feed internally, under the bark. We highlight how forest characteristics (such as tree size), the insect’s natural enemies, and weather influence the patterns of insect-caused disturbance. We also emphasize the importance of scale in interpreting observations drawn from these systems (i.e., alter the size of the study area, its context, or the resolution of a data analysis, and the results change).
