Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Europe: State of Knowledge and Ways Forward for Management

Hlásny, Tomáš; König, Louis A.; Krokene, Paal; Lindner, Marcus; Montagné-Huck, Claire; Müller, Jörg; Qin, Hua; Raffa, Kenneth F.; Schelhaas, M.J.; Svoboda, Miroslav; Viiri, Heli; Seidl, Rupert

doi:10.1007/s40725-021-00142-x

Cited by 233 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 191 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

133

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…During the past decade, rising mean annual temperatures have caused drought prolongation and shifts in growing seasons, which have led to an increased frequency of forest insect attacks and mass propagation of the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.) in the temperate forests of Central Europe [1,2]. For example, spruce (Picea spp.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Correlation between Multisource Remote Sensing Data for Predicting Potential Spread of Ips typographus L. Spots in Healthy Trees

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the last decade, thousands of hectares of forests have been lost in the Czech Republic, primarily related to European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.), while more than 50% of the remaining Czech forests are in great danger, thus posing severe threats to the resilience, stability, and functionality of those forests. The role of remote sensing in monitoring dynamic structural changes caused by pests is essential to understand and sustainably manage these forests. This study hypothesized a possible correlation between tree health status and multisource time series remote sensing data using different processed layers to predict the potential spread of attack by European spruce bark beetle in healthy trees. For this purpose, we used WorldView-2, Pléiades 1B, and SPOT-6 images for the period of April to September from 2018 to 2020; unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery data were also collected for use as a reference data source. Our results revealed that spectral resolution is crucial for the early detection of infestation. We observed a significant difference in the reflectance of different health statuses, which can lead to the early detection of infestation as much as two years in advance. More specifically, several bands from two different satellites in 2018 perfectly predicted the health status classes from 2020. This method could be used to evaluate health status classes in the early stage of infestation over large forested areas, which would provide a better understanding of the current situation and information for decision making and planning for the future.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the Correlation between Multisource Remote Sensing Data for Predicting Potential Spread of Ips typographus L. Spots in Healthy Trees

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Consequently, most of the detected losses of the forest canopy cover result from disturbances, such as droughts and insect infestation. These are often interlinked, particularly drought and bark-beetle infestation in spruce stands [13,16]. It is worth mentioning that the canopy cover losses we recorded are not only caused by the 2018-2020 droughts and cascading effects but also include windthrow, fire and regular harvesting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

“…In Central Europe, large amounts of 2 of 19 fresh deadwood often occur after windthrows, triggering bark beetle outbreaks [10][11][12]. However, drought and heat, among other stressors, can also facilitate outbreaks [13][14][15][16]. During the 2018-2020 droughts, bark beetle management in Germany had a strong focus on the prevention of outbreak expansion via massive salvage and sanitation logging in outbreak areas and their surroundings [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A First Assessment of Canopy Cover Loss in Germany’s Forests after the 2018–2020 Drought Years

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Central Europe was hit by several unusually strong periods of drought and heat between 2018 and 2020. These droughts affected forest ecosystems. Cascading effects with bark beetle infestations in spruce stands were fatal to vast forest areas in Germany. We present the first assessment of canopy cover loss in Germany for the period of January 2018–April 2021. Our approach makes use of dense Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 time-series data. We computed the disturbance index (DI) from the tasseled cap components brightness, greenness, and wetness. Using quantiles, we generated monthly DI composites and calculated anomalies in a reference period (2017). From the resulting map, we calculated the canopy cover loss statistics for administrative entities. Our results show a canopy cover loss of 501,000 ha for Germany, with large regional differences. The losses were largest in central Germany and reached up to two-thirds of coniferous forest loss in some districts. Our map has high spatial (10 m) and temporal (monthly) resolution and can be updated at any time.

show abstract

“…This is why further bark beetle calamities can be expected in the near future [10,11]. Currently, up to 27.4 billion m 3 of spruce forests in Europe are potentially endangered [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An example of the mechanized application of chemical substances can be harvester head modification for spraying the processed stem [16]. The third method is mechanical sanitation, which is implemented either by stem Forests 2021, 12, 1348 2 of 13 debarking or by scraping the bark (removal of bark only in strips parallel to the stem axis). Debarking is conducted in the forest or at the roadside landing with the use of simple hand tools or a power saw with a debarking adapter [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency of Harvester with the Debarking Head at Logging in Spruce Stands Affected by Bark Beetle Outbreak

Mergl

Zemánek

Šušnjar

et al. 2021

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper deals with the use of debarking modifications of the conventional harvester head in the conditions of felling due to bark beetle calamity. For this purpose, a time study was established, in which the conventional heads were compared with the heads with debarking modifications on four research plots and two harvesters. The measurements were taken from August to September 2018. Harvester efficiency with the use of the head with the debarking configuration ranged from 41.2% to 41.8% from the efficiency of a machine with the conventional head, depending on the felling type. It was also demonstrated that the quality of debarking does not depend on the trunk moisture content in the growing season. In terms of diameter, it was found that the best debarked parts of the stem were those occurring in its middle. Specifically, in the central part of the stem with a diameter of 13 to 23 cm, 91.0% of the stem area was debarked in the main felling and 76.6% in the thinning. In contrast, the top parts of the stem (trunk diameter up to 13 cm) were the least debarked. In the main felling, it was 74.2% of the stem area and in the thinning, only 52.2%.

show abstract

Bark Beetle Outbreaks in Europe: State of Knowledge and Ways Forward for Management

Cited by 233 publications

References 191 publications

Investigating the Correlation between Multisource Remote Sensing Data for Predicting Potential Spread of Ips typographus L. Spots in Healthy Trees

Investigating the Correlation between Multisource Remote Sensing Data for Predicting Potential Spread of Ips typographus L. Spots in Healthy Trees

A First Assessment of Canopy Cover Loss in Germany’s Forests after the 2018–2020 Drought Years

Efficiency of Harvester with the Debarking Head at Logging in Spruce Stands Affected by Bark Beetle Outbreak

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About