Abstract
Milder winters have contributed to recent outbreaks of Dendroctonus ponderosae in Canada, but have not been evaluated as a factor permitting concurrent outbreaks across its large range (ca.1500 9 1500 km) in the western United States (US). We examined the trend in minimum air temperatures in D. ponderosae habitats across the western US and assessed whether warming winters explained the occurrence of outbreaks using physiological and population models.
Keywords
climate change,
demography,
mountain pine beetle,
process-based model,
bark beetles,
Pinus,
cold tolerance
Citation
Weed, Aaron S.; Bentz, Barbara J.; Ayres, Matthew P.; Holmes, Thomas P. 2015. Geographically variable response of Dendroctonus ponderosae to winter warming in the western United States. Landscape Ecology. doi: 10.1007/s10980-015-0170-z.
