The Foothills Research Institute (FRI) implemented a Mountain Pine Beetle Ecology Program to carry out focused research and investigations related to infestations of mountain pine beetle in Alberta. The program is conducting research, knowledge transfer and collaboration regarding mountain pine beetle in Alberta. Established under the Landscape Dynamics Program Theme of FRI's five year Business Strategy, research and projects conducted by this Program will examine current and emerging aspects of the effects of mountain pine beetle infestations in the foothills and mountainous areas of Alberta.
A major concern lending urgency to this work is the emerging infestation of mountain pine beetle in Alberta. Much uncertainty surrounds the potential impacts of mountain pine beetle on forest ecology and the related implications. Some areas of concern are:
- Natural disturbance and stand dynamics research, which includes the relationship of fire, pine beetle and the eventual community impacts.
- Understanding forest management implications and options associated with pine beetle infestations.
- Quantification of the short and long-term changes to the fire regime that includes fire intensity and severity in beetle infected stands.
- Understanding mountain pine beetle biology and impact in Alberta.
Through research, collaboration, communication, extension and partnership development, the MPBEP will identify tasks that will be led by a partner driven Activity Team and to achieve these outcomes:
- Maximize the ecological integrity of the affected forest landscape.
- Adjust practices to minimize disturbance factors affecting the landscape.
- Understand and mitigate related disturbance factors such as wildfire occurrence and intensity, and hydrology changes.
- Plan for resource management knowing the changes to the forest ecology and landscape.
Current Projects
1. Effects of Mountain Pine Beetle Attack on Hydrology and Post-attack Vegetation and Hydrologic Recovery in Lodgepole Pine Forest in Alberta.
This initiative is being managed by Dr. Uldis Silins of the University of Alberta . This project will provide information on the impacts of MPB on stand hydrology and ecology to improve post-beetle understandings of management strategies.
Project Research Objectives:
- Determine initial effects of variable intensity of "red attack" on stand water balance including rain/snow interception, forest floor evaporation, soil moisture storage, groundwater recharge, water table response, and understory light regimes and micro-climate.
- Explore relationships between MPB driven changes in understory micro-climate and moisture regimes with initial understory vegetation response (recruitment, growth, leaf area) including opportunities for natural regeneration and early performance of underplanting with several tree species.
- Incorporate new relationships from the above into existing forest water balance models developed for lodgepole pine for broad landscape scaling of hydrologic effects of MPB attack along several hydro-climactically distinct eastern slopes forested regions in Alberta.
2. Monitoring and Decision Support for Regeneration Management in a Mountain Pine Beetle Environment. (NOTE: this project is being done in collaboration with the Foothills Growth and Yield Association).
This project is co managed by Dr. Dick Dempster, scientific and technical elements, and Don Podlubny administrative management. The project will provide a decision support tool that will assist managers in making quick and rational decisions in a complex and fast-changing situation.
Project Objectives:
- Quantitative stand-level projections for predominant post-attack conditions and management intervention alternatives that planners can incorporate quickly into landscape-level and timber supply forecasts.
- Silvicultural guidelines for mitigating negative impacts on mid and long-term timber and cover supply.
- Feed-back from ongoing monitoring to continually improve initial projections and guidelines.
3. Does Prescribed Fire Affect Population Dynamics of Mountain Pine Beetle.
This project is being led by Dr. Nadir Erbilgin of the University of Alberta. The questions this project is asking are: Do fire stressed trees provide ideal habitat for mountain pine beetle or do they provide traps that will not sustain survivable populations.
Project Objectives:
- Quantify pre-fire level of MPB populations.
- Characterize fire damage on individual trees and develop fire severity indices.
- Fire severity indices and bark beetle attacks on trees in burned stands.
- Quality and quantity of beetle offspring emerging from fire-injured trees.
- Evaluate the role of fire in MPB population growth at the landscape level.
The most important aspect of the proposed project will be the contribution to predicting if prescribed fires increase pine susceptibility to successful MPB attack and contribute to landscape level population growth of the beetle in both burned and neighouring unburned stands.
4. Mountain Pine Beetle Population Dynamics in New Habitats and Climates: The Potential for Eastern and Northern Spread in Canada.
This project is being led by Dr. Kathy Bleiker of the Canadian Forest Service, Pacific Forestry Centre. The purpose of this project is to provide the biological knowledge and an effective decision-making tool that can be used to develop effective management practices and strategies to slow the spread of MPB in Canada.
Project Objectives:
- Quantify variation in MPB development (phenology), winter survival, mortality and attack behaviour as it relates to under-canopy and under-bark temperatures and host tree characteristics in populations in the beetle’s new habitat and traditional range.
- Quantify under-canopy and under-bark temperatures in threatened stands (eastern AB, SK) in advance of MPB to more accurately assess the risk of eastern spread.
- Validate and re-parameterize the Powell-Régnierè process-based climatic suitability model for MPB (an integrated ecophysiological model, which couples phenology and overwintering survival) using the relevant field data for application in AB and northern BC to assess the risk of spread.
- Provide data for susceptibility and connectivity analysis of jack pine habitat to MPB (proposed work by B. Riel, CFS).
5. Comparison of Understory Burning and Mechanical Site Preparation to Regenerate Lodgepole Pine Stands Killed by Mountain Pine Beetle.
This project is being lead by Dr. Vic Lieffers and co investigated by Dr. Soung-Ryoul Ryu of the University of Alberta. This project is addressing the question of lodgepole pine forest regeneration after a massive mpb infestation and no salvage.
Project Objectives:
- Which site preparation in MPB killed stands to remove surface vegetation and duff that prevents the successful germination of seedlings is best, prescribed fire or small scale mechanical treatment.
- In sites with greater nutrition, burning may stimulate an increase in growth of competitive vegetation, especially so in stands with aspen.
- We need to understand how weather variables are related to fuel moisture and fire behaviour in MPB-killed stands.
6. Post Mortality Rate of Wood Degradation and Tree Fall in Lodgepole Pine Trees Killed by Mountain Pine Beetle in the Foothills and Rocky Mountain Regions of Alberta.
This study is being lead by Dr. Kathy Lewis of the University of Northern British Columbia. The purpose of the proposed study is to enhance understanding of the post-mortality dynamics of wood degradation and tree fall in MPB-killed lodgepole pine in the Foothills region of Alberta.
Project Objectives:
- Quantify the relationship between time since death, wood moisture content, and other measures of wood quality and quantity.
- Determine the influence of region or subregion on the rate of change in wood properties.
- Quantify the effect of site factors (e.g. soil moisture) on the rate of change in wood properties.
- Determine the rate of tree fall across subregions.
Completion of these objectives will be limited by the relatively recent expansion of the MPB outbreak into Alberta, and will most likely rely on extrapolation of results based on longer-term findings from studies in BC.
7. The Mountain Pine Beetle in Novel Pine Forests: Predicting Impacts in a Warming Environment.
This initiative is being lead by Dr. Allan Carroll of the University of British Columbia. This project will look at the (i) the productivity of MPB in novel pine forests, and (ii) the potential range of future climatic conditions derived from accepted greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. The proposed research will utilize recent quantifications of MPB productivity in natïve lodgepole pine forests (Cudmore et al. 2010; Clark et al. 2010; A.L. Carroll unpubl. data) to modify an empirical model of the role of climate in the beetle’s outbreak potential (Carroll et al. 2004) and project distributions of climatically benign habitat under a range of future forest conditions based on accepted emissions scenarios (Coops et al., this proposal).
Project Objectives and Goals:
Objective 1: Develop a model of the effects of climate on MPB populations that incorporates altered beetle productivity associated with novel pine habitats.
Goals:
- Gather meta data from studies of MPB dynamics in novel pine habitats (Cudmore et al. 2010; Clark et al. 2010; A.L. Carroll, unpubl. data).
- Establish relationships between host-tree characteristics and MPB productivity in novel pine habitats.
- Modify existing model of MPB climatic suitability (Carroll et al. 2004) to incorporate new beetle productivity relationships.
- Calibrate and validate modified model outputs against Alberta Sustainable Resources Development annual MPB productivity (i.e. r-value) surveys.
Objective 2: Projections of MPB climatic suitability under climate change in novel pine habitats.
Goals:
- Apply the modified model of MPB climatic suitability to the outputs of future climatic conditions under different emissions scenarios derived by Coops et al. (this proposal).
- Overlay outputs of MPB climatic suitability derived from the climate change scenarios on projections of future forest conditions provided by Coops et al. (this proposal).
As information and updates occur for the program it will be posted on this site under “view publications”.
The Terms of Reference for this program are on the website as well.