RT Journal Article
T1 Climatic conditions modulate the effect of spruce budworm outbreaks on black spruce growth
A1 Subedi, Anoj
A1 Marchand, Philippe
A1 Bergeron, Yves
A1 Morin, Hubert
A1 Montoro Girona, Miguel
AB Current ecological models predict profound climate change-related effects on the natural disturbance regimes offorests. Spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) (SBW) is the principal insect defoliator in eastern NorthAmerica, and SBW outbreaks have a major impact on the structure and function of the Canadian boreal forest, asdefoliation leads to decreased tree growth, increased mortality, and lower forest productivity. SBW outbreakshave become more severe over the last century with the changing climate; however, little is known about howclimate fluctuations affect the growth of SBW host species during the outbreak period. Here we evaluate howclimate and outbreak severity combined to affect black spruce (Picea mariana) growth during the SBW outbreakthat occurred between 1968–1988 and 2006–2017. We compiled dendrochronological series (2271 trees),outbreak severity (estimated by observed aerial defoliation), and climate data for 164 sites in Qu´ebec, Canada.We used a linear mixed effect model to determine the impacts of climatic parameters, cumulative defoliation (ofthe previous five years), and their coupled effect on basal area growth. At maximum outbreak severity, basal areagrowth of black spruce was reduced by 14%–18% over five years. This outbreak growth response was affected byclimate: warmer previous summer minimum temperatures and a higher previous summer climate moisture indexfurther decreased growth by 11% and 4%, respectively. In contrast, a preceding year’s warmer spring minimumtemperatures (9%) and summer maximum temperatures (7%) attenuated the negative SBW effect. This studyadds knowledge to our landscape-level understanding of combined insect–climate effects and helps predictions offuture SBW-related damage to forest stands to bolster sustainable forest management. We also recommend thatprojections of boreal forest ecosystems include several classes of SBW defoliation and multiple climatic scenariosin future simulations.
PB Elsevier
SN 0168-1923
SN 1873-2240 (electrónico)
YR 2023
FD 2023-06
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23858
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23858
LA eng
NO Subedi, A., Marchand, P., Bergeron, Y., Morin, H., & Montoro-Girona, M. (2023). Climatic conditions modulate the effect of spruce budworm outbreaks on black spruce growth. In Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (Vol. 339, p. 109548). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109548
NO PM and MMG in collaboration with HM, YB et al. obtained funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance and the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests (MRNF) to understand the dynamics of spruce budworm (ALLRP 558267-20). MMG obtained additional funding from an NSERC Discovery grant to reconstruct the regime of natural disturbances in forest ecosystems (RGPIN-2022-05423).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 31 may 2026