Insect infestations and the persistence and functioning of oak-pine mixedwood forests in the mid-Atlantic region, USA.

ABSTRACT: Damage from infestations of Lymantria dispar L. in oak-dominated stands and southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann) in pine-dominated stands have far exceeded impacts of other disturbances in forests of the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain over the last two decades. We used forest census data collected in undisturbed and insect-impacted stands combined with eddy covariance measurements made pre- and post-disturbance in oak-, mixed and pine-dominated stands to quantify how these infestations altered forest composition, structure and carbon dynamics in the Pinelands National Reserve of southern New Jersey. In oak-dominated stands, multi-year defoliation during L. dispar infestations resulted in > 40% mortality of oak trees and the release of pine saplings and understory vegetation

SUBMITTER: Clark KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9067937 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature