Snow accumulation and ablation response to changes in forest structure and snow surface albedo after attack by mountain pine beetle

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Winkler ◽  
Sarah Boon ◽  
Barbara Zimonick ◽  
Dave Spittlehouse
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Snow Accumulation ◽  
Snow Surface ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle

Forest developmental trajectories in mountain pine beetle disturbed forests of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 782-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Diskin ◽  
Monique E. Rocca ◽  
Kellen N. Nelson ◽  
Carissa F. Aoki ◽  
W.H. Romme
Keyword(s):  
Forest Structure ◽  
National Park ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Rocky Mountain National Park ◽  
Forest Types ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle

A mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) epidemic has caused widespread mortality of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) trees across western North America,. We characterized the initial effects of beetle-induced mortality on forest structure and composition in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. In 2008, we surveyed stand structure and tree species composition across lodgepole pine dominated forests in the western portion of the Park. We defined five lodgepole pine forest types to describe variability in pre-epidemic forest conditions. This forested landscape appears to be resilient to the effects of the beetle. Surviving trees, including both canopy trees and saplings, were plentiful in most of the post-epidemic forests, even after accounting for anticipated future mortality. Subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm.), and aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) had modestly higher relative abundances after the epidemic. Lodgepole pine remained the dominant species on approximately 85% of the landscape. The impact of the outbreak on forest structure and composition varied considerably among the five forest types, suggesting that post-epidemic forest developmental trajectories will vary according to pre-outbreak stand characteristics. Active management efforts to regenerate lodgepole pine forests, e.g., tree planting, will likely not be necessary on this landscape.

scholarly journals Modelling long-term impacts of mountain pine beetle outbreaks on merchantable biomass, ecosystem carbon, albedo, and radiative forcing

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 5277-5295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Sébastien Landry ◽  
Lael Parrott ◽  
David T. Price ◽  
Navin Ramankutty ◽  
H. Damon Matthews
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Moisture Stress ◽  
Carbon Surface ◽  
Ecosystem Carbon ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle

Abstract. The ongoing major outbreak of mountain pine beetle (MPB) in forests of western North America has led to considerable research efforts. However, many questions remain unaddressed regarding its long-term impacts, especially when accounting for the range of possible responses from the non-target vegetation (i.e., deciduous trees and lower-canopy shrubs and grasses). We used the Integrated BIosphere Simulator (IBIS) process-based ecosystem model along with the recently incorporated Marauding Insect Module (MIM) to quantify, over 240 years, the impacts of various MPB outbreak regimes on lodgepole pine merchantable biomass, ecosystem carbon, surface albedo, and the net radiative forcing on global climate caused by the changes in ecosystem carbon and albedo. We performed simulations for three locations in British Columbia, Canada, with different climatic conditions, and four scenarios of various coexisting vegetation types with variable growth release responses. The impacts of MPB outbreaks on merchantable biomass (decrease) and surface albedo (increase) were similar across the 12 combinations of locations and vegetation coexistence scenarios. The impacts on ecosystem carbon and radiative forcing, however, varied substantially in magnitude and sign, depending upon the presence and response of the non-target vegetation, particularly for the two locations not subjected to growing-season soil moisture stress; this variability represents the main finding from our study. Despite major uncertainty in the value of the resulting radiative forcing, a simple analysis also suggested that the MPB outbreak in British Columbia will have a smaller impact on global temperature over the coming decades and centuries than a single month of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production. Moreover, we found that (1) outbreak severity (i.e., per-event mortality) had a stronger effect than outbreak return interval on the variables studied, (2) MPB-induced changes in carbon dynamics had a stronger effect than concurrent changes in albedo on net radiative forcing, and (3) the physical presence of MPB-killed dead standing trees was potentially beneficial to tree regrowth. Given that the variability of pre-outbreak vegetation characteristics can lead to very different regeneration pathways, the four vegetation coexistence scenarios we simulated probably only sampled the range of possible responses.

scholarly journals Modelling long-term impacts of mountain pine beetle outbreaks on merchantable biomass, ecosystem carbon, albedo, and radiative forcing

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Sébastien Landry ◽  
Lael Parrott ◽  
David T. Price ◽  
Navin Ramankutty ◽  
H. Damon Matthews
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Moisture Stress ◽  
Carbon Surface ◽  
Ecosystem Carbon ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle

Abstract. The ongoing major outbreak of mountain pine beetle (MPB) in forests of western North America has led to considerable research efforts. Yet many questions remain unaddressed regarding its long-term impacts, especially when accounting for the range of possible responses from the non-target vegetation (i.e., deciduous trees and lower-canopy shrubs and grasses). We used the Integrated BIosphere Simulator (IBIS) process-based ecosystem model along with the recently incorporated Marauding Insect Module (MIM) to quantify, over 240 years, the impacts of various MPB outbreak regimes on lodgepole pine merchantable biomass, ecosystem carbon, surface albedo, and the net radiative forcing on global climate caused by the changes in ecosystem carbon and albedo. We performed simulations for three locations in British Columbia, Canada, having different climatic conditions, and four scenarios of various coexisting vegetation types with variable growth release responses. The impacts of MPB outbreaks on merchantable biomass (decrease) and surface albedo (increase) were similar across the 12 combinations of locations and vegetation coexistence scenarios. The main finding from our study was that the impacts on ecosystem carbon and radiative forcing, on the contrary, varied substantially in magnitude and sign depending upon the presence and response of the non-target vegetation, particularly for the two locations not subjected to growing-season soil moisture stress. Despite major uncertainty in the value of the resulting radiative forcing, a simple analysis also suggested a smaller impact on global temperature from the MPB outbreak in British Columbia compared to one month of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production. Moreover, we found that: (1) outbreak severity (i.e., per-event mortality) had a stronger effect than outbreak return interval on the variables studied, (2) MPB-induced changes in carbon dynamics had a stronger effect than concurrent changes in albedo on net radiative forcing, and (3) the physical presence of MPB-killed dead standing trees was potentially beneficial to tree regrowth.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document