Treesearch

Background Flight can drastically enhance dispersal capacity and is a key trait defining the potential of exotic insect species to spread and invade new habitats. The phytophagous European spongy moths (ESM, Lymantria dispar dispar) and Asian spongy moths (ASM; a multi–species group represented here by L. d. asiatica and L. d. japonica), are globally invasive species that vary in adult female flight capability—female ASM are typically flight capable, whereas female ESM are typically flightless. Genetic markers of flight capability would supply a powerful tool for flight profiling of these...

In a recent article published in the journal Ecology, our research team reported that neighborhoods in Baltimore that were redlined have consistently lower street tree diversity and are nine times less likely to have large (old) trees occupying a viable planting site. What does this mean for those who live in these neighborhoods, and what steps might cities like Baltimore take to mitigate this structural challenge in their urban forests? For biodiversity experts, street trees provide a unique study population because trees can live for many decades, and patterns of street tree size,...

Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense, hereafter: privet) is an invasive shrub common throughout the Eastern and Southeastern United States. The foremost concern of privet is its highly competitive nature; it displaces native plants, their associated pollinators, and wildlife communities. Extended leaf phenology (ELP) is an adaptation which allows understory plants in deciduous forests to take advantage of higher sunlight levels during the dormant season when canopy foliage is absent and has been associated with many invasive plant species. To measure the ELP potential of privet, we created...

Atanycolus yangi sp. nov. (Hymenoptera, Braconidae), a new species parasitizing the flatheaded wood borer, Lamprodila nobilissima bellula (Lewis) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is described. Lamprodila nobilissima bellula is a serious wood boring pest of Rosacea trees in North China. We collected adult specimens of A. yangi sp. nov. searching for hosts on infested tree trunks and confirmed the host-parasitoid association by dissecting parasitized hosts from infested trees in the field and rearing the parasitoid from L. nobilissima bellula-infested host tree logs in the laboratory. Adult images...

Trees growing outside their native geographic ranges often exhibit exceptional growth and survival due in part to the lack of co-evolved natural enemies that may limit their spread and suppress population growth. While most non-native trees tend to accumulate natural enemies over time, it remains uncertain which host and insect characteristics affect these novel associations and whether novel associations follow patterns of assembly similar to those of native hosts. Here, we used a dataset of insect–host tree associations in Europe to model which native insect species are paired with which...

Although northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis; henceforth cedar) is thought to have few insect pests, arborvitae leafminers (primarily Argyresthia thuiella) have been known to cause leaf necrosis. Yet, historical evidence for leafminer outbreaks is limited. We combined leafminer larval surveys conducted between 1950 and 1992 with tree-ring analyses from eight cedar stands to reconstruct a history of leafminer outbreaks in Maine, USA. Our tree-ring data show distinctive 2- to 3-year growth reductions that we attribute to leafminers. Several such growth reductions correspond to peak...

Background. Boreal regions are warming at more than double the global average, creating opportunities for the northward expansion of agriculture. Expanding agricultural production in these regions will involve the conversion of boreal forests to agricultural fields, with cumulative impacts on soil microbial communities and associated biogeochemical cycling processes. Understanding the magnitude or rate of change that will occur with these biological processes will provide information that will enable these regions to be developed in a more sustainable manner, including managing carbon and...

Forest management practices designed to meet varied landowner objectives affect wildlife habitat and may interrupt the life-cycle stages of disease vectors, including the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis Say (Acari: Ixodidae). Ixodes scapularis transmits multiple pathogens including Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, which is the most common tick-borne disease in the United States. There is evidence that a range of active forest management practices (e.g., invasive plant removal, prescribed burning) can alter tick densities and pathogen transmission. However,...

Understanding the complexity of forest community dynamics is essential in forest management planning and stewardship, yet lowland northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) are often managed as homogenous communities. Through this study, we defned lowland white-cedar forest community types in unharvested and harvested forest stands within the State of Michigan and examined community type associations with ecological variables. Data collected in unharvested stands revealed three whitecedar community subtypes: (1) cedar-deciduous, (2) cedar-conifer, and (3) cedar-shrub. These unharvested...

A changing climate offers new opportunities to expand agriculture in northern latitudes, and understanding forest-to-agriculture land conversion impacts is critical to ensure soil sustainability. Using the Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health (CASH) framework, we identified a minimum suite of indicators with little collinearity to reliably predict soil impacts during the conversion of boreal forest to agriculture and a time since conversion gradient (forest, <10 years, >10 and <50 years, and >50 years since conversion). We sampled paired forest and agricultural sites and used multiple...