Bark beetle impacts on forest evapotranspiration and its partitioning

Insect outbreaks affect forest structure and function and represent a major category of forest disturbance globally. However, the resulting impacts on evapotranspiration (ET), and especially hydrological partitioning between the abi-otic (evaporation) and biotic (transpiration) components of total ET, are not well constrained. As a result, we combined remote sensing, eddy covariance, and hydrological modeling approaches to determine the effects of bark beetle out-break on ET and its partitioning at multiple scales throughout the Southern Rocky Mountain Ecoregion (SRME), USA. At the eddy covariance measurement scale, 85 % of the forest was affected by beetles, and water year ET as a

Automated summary

Insect outbreaks have significant impacts on forest structure and function globally, but their effects on evapotranspiration (ET) and its components are not well understood. In this study, we used remote sensing, eddy covariance, and hydrological modelling to investigate the effects of bark beetle outbreak on ET and its partitioning in the Southern Rocky Mountain Ecoregion (SRME), USA. Our results showed that 85% of the forest area was affected by beetles, leading to a significant decrease in annual water year ET.