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Abstract
Many species of
Dendroctonus, particularly the so-called aggressive species, are notorious outbreak organisms with more or less predictable or characteristic, cyclic patterns of outbreak locally if not regionally.
D. frontalis, for example, exhibits an approximately 7-10 year cycle with 2-3 year duration of outbreak. The last south-wide outbreak of
D. frontalis began in 1992 and peaked in 1995, with an estimated timber resource loss of $350 million in that year alone (Price and others 1998). The previous peak occurred in 1986. The presumption is that at epidemic levels, beetle populations move toward a maximum rate of increase; environmental resistance eventually imposes limits, and the populations begin to wane. Although numerous efforts have been made to determine the principle factor(s) responsible for contributing to this phenomenon, none have yet been identified.
Parent Publication
Citation
Hayes, Jane Leslie. 1999. Chapter 3. Genetic variation in
Dendroctonus frontalis, within and between populations. In: Hayes, Jane L.; Raffa, Kenneth F., [tech. coords.]. Proceedings of a workshop on bark beetle genetics: current status of research. Workshop on Bark Beetle Genetics; 1998 July 17-18; Madison, WI. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-466. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station: 6-8.
