Influence of fire and mountain pine beetle on the dynamics of lodgepole pine stands in British Columbia, Canada

Aftermath of Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak in British Columbia: Stand Dynamics, Management Response and Ecosystem Resilience

“…From different studies, it is well documented that MPB outbreaks play an important role in directing ecological process and the dynamics of lodgepole pine forests [1,14,23,[37][38][39][40]. Moreover, beetle infestations are viewed as stand-releasing disturbances that favour the release of existing suppressed and understory trees which then form a new forest (e.g., [1,18,[39][40][41][42]).…”

“…Moreover, beetle infestations are viewed as stand-releasing disturbances that favour the release of existing suppressed and understory trees which then form a new forest (e.g., [1,18,[39][40][41][42]). In the absence of fire, MPB outbreaks exert widespread influence upon stand succession processes in favour of shade tolerant or semi shade tolerant species in even-aged pine forests [1,37,39,43]. However, forest management practices before (e.g., fire suppression) and after (e.g., salvage logging) beetle attack may also play a vital role in the composition and size structure of understory and overstory species [33].…”

“…The recruitment rate and species composition of new regeneration after MPB attack are variable across the landscape (different combinations of species and densities). Several recent studies reported successful recruitment with abundant regeneration beneath the tree layer after MPB attack [40,[53][54][55][56][57][58] while others reported a slow recruitment process with substantially lower regeneration density [1,21,59]. However, Amoroso et al [55] concluded that ingress of natural regeneration was slow in the first few years after MPB attack but there was a strong pulse of recruitment 10-20 years post disturbance.…”

“…The mountain pine beetle (MPB) (Dendroctonous ponderosae Hopkins) is part of the natural system in British Columbia's pine forests and it helps to maintain biological diversity and functionally healthy landscapes [1]. The MPB can be found in pine forests from western Canada to northern Mexico [2].…”

Modelling natural disturbances in forest ecosystems: a review

“…Trading off process resolution for scale, these interactions were modelled via changed vegetation structure and composition at larger scales by means of state-andtransition approaches (e.g., Bachelet et al, 2000: MC1;Kurz et al, 2000: TELSA), and cellular automata (e.g., Shifley et al, 2006: LANDIS). Despite the substantial ecological and management implications of wildfire disturbance interactions (e.g., Axelson et al, 2009) and the potential of models for addressing them, limited process understanding and demanding scaling requirements (from the level of small-scale fuel conditions to decades and centuries of landscape dynamics) still pose a challenge for simulation modelling and make disturbance interactions an active field of research and debate.…”