| Title: | The Vision of Managing for Pest-Resistant Landscapes: Realistic or Utopic? |
| Author(s): | Kneeshaw DD; Sturtevant BR; DeGrandpe L; Doblas-Miranda E; James PMA; Tardif D; Burton PJ; |
| Address: | "Centre for Forest Research, University of Quebec in Montreal, Montreal, Canada. GRID: grid.38678.32. ISNI: 0000 0001 2181 0211 Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Rhinelander, WI USA. GRID: grid.472551.0. ISNI: 0000 0004 0404 3120 Laurentian Forestry Centre, Canadian Forestry Service, Quebec City, Canada. CREAF, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Valles), Catalonia, Spain. GRID: grid.452388.0. ISNI: 0000 0001 0722 403X Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E08193 Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Valles), Catalonia, Spain. GRID: grid.7080.f University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada. GRID: grid.17063.33. ISNI: 0000 0001 2157 2938 University of Northern British Columbia, Terrace, BC Canada. GRID: grid.266876.b. ISNI: 0000 0001 2156 9982" |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s40725-021-00140-z |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2198-6436 (Electronic) 2198-6436 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Forest managers have long suggested that forests can be made more resilient to insect pests by reducing the abundance of hosts, yet this has rarely been done. The goal of our paper is to review whether recent scientific evidence supports forest manipulation to decrease vulnerability. To achieve this goal, we first ask if outbreaks of forest insect pests have been more severe in recent decades. Next, we assess the relative importance of climate change and forest management-induced changes in forest composition/structure in driving these changes in severity. RECENT FINDINGS: Forest structure and composition continue to be implicated in pest outbreak severity. Mechanisms, however, remain elusive. Recent research elucidates how forest compositional and structural diversity at neighbourhood, stand, and landscape scales can increase forest resistance to outbreaks. Many recent outbreaks of herbivorous forest insects have been unprecedented in terms of duration and spatial extent. Climate change may be a contributing factor, but forest structure and composition have been clearly identified as contributing to these unprecedented outbreaks. SUMMARY: Current research supports using silviculture to create pest-resistant forest landscapes. However, the precise mechanisms by which silviculture can increase resistance remains uncertain. Further, humans tend to more often create pest-prone forests due to political, economic, and human resistance to change and a short-sighted risk management perspective that focuses on reactive rather than proactive responses to insect outbreak threats. Future research efforts need to focus on social, political, cultural, and educational mechanisms to motivate implementation of proven ecological solutions if pest-resistant forests are to be favoured by management" |
| Keywords: | Climate change Forest management Forest resistance to insect pests Social barriers to management Structural and compositional diversity Unprecedented outbreaks; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEKneeshaw, Daniel D Sturtevant, Brian R DeGrandpe, Louis Doblas-Miranda, Enrique James, Patrick M A Tardif, Dominique Burton, Philip J eng Review Germany 2021/01/01 Curr For Rep. 2021; 7(2):97-113. doi: 10.1007/s40725-021-00140-z. Epub 2021 Apr 16" |
