Limited tree mortality in unburned areas linked to bark beetle spillover from wildfires.

ABSTRACT: Increased fire activity in the western United States since 2000 has produced an abundance of fire-injured trees at risk to lethal attack by bark beetles. Large populations of bark beetles reproducing in fire-injured trees may disperse (or spillover) from inside the fire perimeter to adjacent, unburned forests, potentially causing extensive tree mortality. In the western United States and Canada, fire-injured Douglas-fir (DF; Pseudotsuga menziesii) are frequently colonized by Douglas-fir beetle (DFB; Dendroctonus pseudotsugae), prompting concern among land managers about elevated risk of spillover. We investigated spatiotemporal patterns of DF tree mortality from DFB in unburned areas surrounding 61 wildfires (2000-2017) with a high likelihood for spillover in the Northern Rocky Mountains,

SUBMITTER: Andrus RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12223477 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature