Go big or go home: A model-based assessment of general strategies to slow the spread of forest pests via infested firewood.

ABSTRACT: Invasive pests, such as emerald ash borer or Asian longhorn beetle, have been responsible for unprecedented ecological and economic damage in eastern North America. These and other wood-boring invasive insects can spread to new areas through human transport of untreated firewood. Behaviour, such as transport of firewood, is affected not only by immediate material benefits and costs, but also by social forces. Potential approaches to reduce the spread of wood-boring pests through firewood include raising awareness of the problem and increasing the social costs of the damages incurred by transporting firewood. In order to evaluate the efficacy of these measures, we create a coupled social-ecological model of firewood transport, pest spread, and social dynamics, on a geographical network of c

SUBMITTER: Jentsch PC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7491730 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature