Species variables or environmental variables as indicators of forest biodiversity: a case study using saproxylic beetles in Maritime pine plantations

To assess the sustainability of plantation forest management we compare two types of biodiversity indicators. We used the species richness of saproxylic beetles as a case study to test the “species” and “environmental” indicator approaches. We compared single species abundance or occurrence and deadwood volume or diversity as predictor variables. • Beetles were sampled with flight interception traps in 40 Maritime pine plantation stands. The volume and diversity of deadwood was estimated with line intersect and plot sampling in the same stands. Predictive models of species richness were built with simple linear or Partial Least Square regressions. • Deadwood variables appeared to be good predictors of saproxylic beetle richness at the stand-scale with at least 75% of variance explained. Deadwood diversity variables consistently provided better predictive models than volume variables. The best environmental indicator was the diversity of deadwood elements larger than 15 cm in diameter. • By contrast, the use of “species variables” appeared to be less relevant. To reach the quality of prediction obtained with “environmental variables”, the abundance or occurrence of 6 to 7 species – some of which are difficult to identify – had to be used to build the indicator

Effect of the Diversity of Forests on Their Resistance to native and Alien Insect Pests

In view of the technical, economic and environmental problems raised by curative control of insect pests, greater attention should be paid to developing prevention of entomological risks in forests. An increasing number of meta-analyses and empirical studies suggest that mixed forests suffer less damage from insects than pure forests in a temperate environment. Several mechanisms explain this “associational resistance” (of forest species). The presence of non-host species in mixed forests brings about a decrease in the host tree resource, reduces their accessibility and may alter their traits limiting their colonisation and exploitation by the insect pest. Furthermore, forest species biodiversity leads to an increase in the resource and to habitats that are favourable to the natural enemies of pests and therefore to an improvement in their predatory efficiency. Rather than the wealth of species in a mixed forest, it is more the identity and relative proportions of the various species in the mix that impact their resistance to herbivores. These ecological processes based on the concept of associational resistance could be taken into account to develop alternative silvicultural practices for preserving forest health in the long term

Modelling Monochamus galloprovincialis dispersal trajectories across a heterogeneous landscape to optimize monitoring by trapping networks

Context 14 The pine wood nematode (PWN), is an invasive species which was introduced into Europe in 15 1999. It represents a major economic and ecological threat to European forests. In Europe, the 16 maritime pine is the main host and Monochamus galloprovinciallis is its only vector. 17 18 Objectives 19 Our goal was to analyze the effect of landscape heterogeneity on the vector’s dispersal. We 20 further aimed at developing a new method to locate the origin of insects captured in a systematic 21 network of pheromone traps. 22 23 Methods 24 A mark-release-recapture experiment was carried out in a heterogeneous landscape combining 25 maritime pine plantations, clear-cuts and isolated patches of broadleaved and mixed forests in 26 the southwest of France. 27 Least-cost path analysis was used to model dispersal trajectories and assign friction values to 28 each land-use type in the landscape. We used the trap’s geographical coordinates, capture levels 29 and mean friction values of neighbouring patches to calculate a weighed barycentre and the 30 position of the release of marked beetlesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Drought and stand susceptibility to attacks by the European spruce bark beetle: A remote sensing approach

Several time-series analyses have demonstrated that after extreme summer droughtbark beetle damage increased. However, studies predicting stand susceptibility overlarge spatial extents are limited by technical constraints in obtaining detailed,spatially-explicit data on infestation spot occurrence.2. Using a unique dataset of georeferenced bark beetle infestation data, we testedwhether the spatial variation of local growing conditions of forest stands, topogra-phy, and landscape variables modified the local occurrence ofIps typographusinfes-tations after a severe hot drought in Central Europe.3. Bark beetle infestation occurrence depended on soil-related aridity intensity, eleva-tion, slope, and soil conditions. We showed that elevation interacted with growingconditions and topography. At low elevations, spruce forests growing on flat areasand wetter soils were more sensitive to the infestations. On the contrary, forestson steep slopes and soils with low water availability were rarely attacked. At thelandscape scale, bark beetle damage increased with host tree cover but decreasedwith compositional diversity.4. Our findings are generally consistent with the growth-differentiation balancehypothesis that predicts that trees growing under chronic dry conditions tend to bemore resistant against biotic disturbances.5. Spruce stands at low elevations located in homogeneous landscapes dominated byspruce were those more exposed to bark beetles in the initial phase of a drought-induced outbrea

Associational resistance to a pest insect fades with time

Tree diversity is one of the drivers of forest resistance to herbivores. Most of the current understanding of the diversity resistance relationship comes primarily from short-term studies. Knowing whether tree diversity effects on herbivores are maintained over time is important for perennial ecosystems like forests. We addressed the temporal dynamics of the diversity resistance relationship by conducting a 6-year survey of pine attacks by the pine processionary moth Thaumetopoea pityocampa (PPM) in a tree diversity experiment where we could disentangle tree composition from host density effects. During the first years after planting the trees, PPM attacks on maritime pine Pinus pinaster were reduced in the presence ofbirch Betula pendula, a fast-growing non-host tree (i.e. associational resistance). This effect was maintained but faded with time as the pines eventually grew taller than neighbouring birches. The number of repeated attacks on individual pine trees also decreased in mixed pine–birch stands. Pine density had a positive effect on stand colonisation by PPM and a negative effect on the proportion of trees that were attacked. Pines were less likely to be repeatedly attacked as pine density increased, with attacks being spread over a larger number of host trees. Collectively, these results unravel the independent contributionof tree species composition and host density to tree resistance to herbivores. Both processes had directional changes over time. These results indicate that the resistance of planted forests to herbivores can be improved by carefully choosing the composition of mixed forests and the timing of species planting.Keywords Associational effects · Forest · ORPHEE experiment · Plant–insect interactions · Thaumetopoea pityocampa </p

Fungal disease incidence along tree diversity gradients depends on latitude in European forests

European forests host a diversity of tree species that are increasingly threatened by fungal pathogens, which may have cascading consequences for forest ecosystems and their functioning. Previous experimental studies suggest that foliar and root pathogen abundance and disease severity decrease with increasing tree species diversity, but evidences from natural forests are rare. Here, we tested whether foliar fungal disease incidence was negatively affected by tree species diversity in different forest types across Europe. We measured the foliar fungal disease incidence on 16 different tree species in 209 plots in six European countries, representing a forest-type gradient from the Mediterranean to boreal forests. Forest plots of single species (monoculture plots) and those with different combinations of two to five tree species (mixed species plots) were compared. Specifically, we analyzed the influence of tree species richness, functional type (conifer vs. broadleaved) and phylogenetic diversity on overall fungal disease incidence. The effect of tree species richness on disease incidence varied with latitude and functional type. Disease incidence tended to increase with tree diversity, in particular in northern latitudes. Disease incidence decreased with tree species richness in conifers, but not in broadleaved trees. However, for specific damage symptoms, no tree species richness effects were observed. Although the patterns were weak, susceptibility of forests to disease appears to depend on the forest site and tree type

A socio-ecological framework for the analysis of edges dynamics and their consequences on ecosystems services in temperate landscapes

The 2015 World Congress was a joint meeting between the International Association of Landscape Ecology World Congress (WC) and the U.S. chapter of IALE (US-IALE), held at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower in Portland, Oregon, July 5 - 10, 2015. The theme was: Crossing Scales, Crossing Borders: Global Approaches to Complex Challenges. The meeting brought together nearly 1,000 leaders in landscape ecology from around the globe, including educators and practitioners in the fields of geology, ecology, biology, geography, and landscape preservation and design, dedicated to preserving and protecting our natural resources