Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 17, Issue 11, Pages 1418-1426Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12345
Keywords
Biotic disturbance; ecosystem modelling; forest insects and pathogens; functional types; pathogen and insect pathways
Categories
Funding
- NSF [EF-1241894, EF-1346748]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Emerging Frontiers [1241881, 1241860] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Emerging Frontiers
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1241894] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Forest insects and pathogens (FIPs) have enormous impacts on community dynamics, carbon storage and ecosystem services, however, ecosystem modelling of FIPs is limited due to their variability in severity and extent. We present a general framework for modelling FIP disturbances through their impacts on tree ecophysiology. Five pathways are identified as the basis for functional groupings: increases in leaf, stem and root turnover, and reductions in phloem and xylem transport. A simple ecophysiological model was used to explore the sensitivity of forest growth, mortality and ecosystem fluxes to varying outbreak severity. Across all pathways, low infection was associated with growth reduction but limited mortality. Moderate infection led to individual tree mortality, whereas high levels led to stand-level die-offs delayed over multiple years. Delayed mortality is consistent with observations and critical for capturing biophysical, biogeochemical and successional responses. This framework enables novel predictions under present and future global change scenarios.
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