Monitoring the effects of gypsy moth defoliation on forest stand dynamics on Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Sampling intervals and appropriate interpretations

Barron, Elizabeth S.; Patterson, William A.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2008.08.001

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…At pine-oak and pine-scrub oak stands, oaks but not pines were defoliated . Other studies have also indicated that oak is preferred over pine by the gypsy moth (Campbell and Sloan 1977, Davidson et al 2001, Barron and Patterson 2008.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…For simplicity, we assume that defoliated trees become completely defoliated. Also, because hardwood trees have been most severely affected by historical gypsy moth outbreaks (Davidson et al 2001, Barron andPatterson 2008), we assume that only the hardwoods are defoliated. In each of these experiments, defoliation was prescribed to occur every 5 yr.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over 41 million m 2 of basal area in the northeastern US are thought to be at risk of attack by gypsy moth, and thus far gypsy moths have invaded about 23% of the forested area that provides suitable habitat for them throughout the US (Hicke et al 2012). Field observations and remote sensing are increasing our ability to detect these attacks, and to assess the implications for ecosystem structure and functioning (Liebhold et al 1992, Barron and Patterson 2008, de Beurs and Townsend 2008, Schäfer et al 2010. Such observations are critical for the development and testing of predictive, mechanistic numerical models of the terrestrial biosphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Simulated impacts of insect defoliation on forest carbon dynamics

Medvigy

Clark

Skowronski

et al. 2012

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Many temperate and boreal forests are subject to insect epidemics. In the eastern US, over 41 million meters squared of tree basal area are thought to be at risk of gypsy moth defoliation. However, the decadal-to-century scale implications of defoliation events for ecosystem carbon dynamics are not well understood. In this study, the effects of defoliation intensity, periodicity and spatial pattern on the carbon cycle are investigated in a set of idealized model simulations.A mechanistic terrestrial biosphere model, ecosystem demography model 2, is driven with observations from a xeric oak-pine forest located in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Simulations indicate that net ecosystem productivity (equal to photosynthesis minus respiration) decreases linearly with increasing defoliation intensity. However, because of interactions between defoliation and drought effects, aboveground biomass exhibits a nonlinear decrease with increasing defoliation intensity. The ecosystem responds strongly with both reduced productivity and biomass loss when defoliation periodicity varies from 5 to 15 yr, but exhibits a relatively weak response when defoliation periodicity varies from 15 to 60 yr. Simulations of spatially heterogeneous defoliation resulted in markedly smaller carbon stocks than simulations with spatially homogeneous defoliation. These results show that gypsy moth defoliation has a large effect on oak-pine forest biomass dynamics, functioning and its capacity to act as a carbon sink.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Simulated impacts of insect defoliation on forest carbon dynamics

Medvigy

Clark

Skowronski

et al. 2012

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…In the short term, defoliation events can alter canopy light transmittance, temperature and moisture content of the soil, and forest nutrient cycling ( Gandhi and Herms 2010 ). Over time, L. dispar defoliation events in the Northeast can lead to large-scale oak mortality and changes in forest stand composition and dynamics including a decrease in oak dominance ( Barron and Patterson 2008 ; Morin and Liebhold 2016 ). Changes in forest composition due to oak mortality from L. dispar outbreaks are predicted to negatively impact eastern North American wildlife, which rely heavily on the consumption of acorns from oak masts ( McShea et al 2007 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oaks ( Quercus spp.) are the preferred hosts for L. dispar caterpillars, and although trees can typically withstand a single year of defoliation, successive years of L. dispar defoliation can lead to oak tree mortality ( Barron and Patterson 2008 ; Dietze and Matthes 2014 ; Morin and Liebhold 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defoliation severity is positively related to soil solution nitrogen availability and negatively related to soil nitrogen concentrations following a multi-year invasive insect irruption

et al. 2020

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Understanding connections between ecosystem nitrogen (N) cycling and invasive insect defoliation could facilitate the prediction of disturbance impacts across a range of spatial scales. In this study we investigated relationships between ecosystem N cycling and tree defoliation during a recent 2015–18 irruption of invasive gypsy moth caterpillars ( Lymantria dispar ), which can cause tree stress and sometimes mortality following multiple years of defoliation. Nitrogen is a critical nutrient that limits the growth of caterpillars and plants in temperate forests. In this study, we assessed the associations among N concentrations, soil solution N availability and defoliation intensity by L. dispar at the scale of individual trees and forest plots. We measured leaf and soil N concentrations and soil solution inorganic N availability among individual red oak trees ( Quercus rubra ) in Amherst, MA and across a network of forest plots in Central Massachusetts. We combined these field data with estimated defoliation severity derived from Landsat imagery to assess relationships between plot-scale defoliation and ecosystem N cycling. We found that trees in soil with lower N concentrations experienced more herbivory than trees in soil with higher N concentrations. Additionally, forest plots with lower N soil were correlated with more severe L. dispar defoliation, which matched the tree-level relationship. The amount of inorganic N in soil solution was strongly positively correlated with defoliation intensity and the number of sequential years of defoliation. These results suggested that higher ecosystem N pools might promote the resistance of oak trees to L. dispar defoliation and that defoliation severity across multiple years is associated with a linear increase in soil solution inorganic N.

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