Small bugs with big impacts: Ecosystem and watershed-level responses to the MPB epidemic [Chapter 7]

Abstract

Mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreaks have the potential for prolonged impacts on the delivery of clean water from infested subalpine watersheds throughout the West. Sixty-five percent of the West’s water supply originates on forested land (Brown and others 2008), much of which has been affected by an unprecedented MPB epidemic over the past decade. Some lodgepole pine stands in Colorado have lost more than 70 percent of their basal area following the MPB epidemic (Collins and others 2012). The death of pine trees leads to increased availability of light, water, and nutrients for residual overstory trees and understory vegetation; it can also result in increased water and nutrient runoff.

Parent Publication

• Future Forests Webinar Series, Webinar Proceedings and Summary: Ongoing Research and Management Responses to the Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak

Citation

Hubbard, Rob; Elder, Kelly; Rhoades, Chuck; Hays, Polly; Sims, Bruce. 2014. Small bugs with big impacts: Ecosystem and watershed-level responses to the MPB epidemic [Chapter 7]. In: Matonis, M.; Hubbard, R.; Gebert, K.; Hahn, B.; Miller, S.; Regan, C. Future Forests Webinar Series, Webinar Proceedings and Summary: Ongoing Research and Management Responses to the Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak. Proceedings RMRS-P-70. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 61-72.