Tree mortality in an unmanaged mountain pine (Pinus mugo var. uncinata) stand in the Swiss National Park impacted by root rot fungi

2001 ◽  
Vol 145 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Dobbertin ◽  
A Baltensweiler ◽  
D Rigling
Keyword(s):  
Root Rot ◽  
National Park ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Pinus Mugo ◽  
Swiss National Park ◽  
Mountain Pine

Impact of root-rot pathogens on forest succession in unmanaged Pinus mugo stands in the Central Alps

2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 2666-2674 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Bendel ◽  
F Kienast ◽  
D Rigling ◽  
H Bugmann
Keyword(s):  
Root Rot ◽  
Forest Succession ◽  
Premature Mortality ◽  
Heterobasidion Annosum ◽  
Pinus Mugo ◽  
Central Alps ◽  
Swiss National Park ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Regeneration ◽  
The Impact

In the mountain pine (Pinus mugo subsp. uncinata (DC.) Domin) forests of the Swiss National Park in the Central Alps, disease centers associated with the root-rot fungi Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref. and Armillaria spp. are characteristic elements. We assessed the impact of these pathogens on forest dynamics by studying transects running across disease centers into the adjacent forest. Overall, mountain pine was the most abundant regenerating tree species and accounted for 84% of all seedlings (<20 cm high) and 93% of all saplings (20–130 cm high), whereas Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) was less frequent (15% seedlings : 7% saplings). The density of mountain pine seedlings did not differ significantly between the disease centers and the adjacent forest, whereas mountain pine saplings were more frequent within the disease centers, indicating that growth from the seedling to the sapling stage was favoured in disease centers. There was significantly more dead wood and a greater diversity of plant species in the disease centers than in the adjacent forest. The results suggest that root-rot fungi slow down succession towards stands with a higher proportion of P. cembra by causing premature mortality of mountain pines and creating disease centers with dense mountain pine regeneration.

scholarly journals The Swiss National Park

Oryx ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
G. N. Zimmerli
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Swiss Society ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
Swiss National Park ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
Eastern Border ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The One ◽  
Protection Commission

The idea of a Swiss national park originated with the Swiss Society for Nature Research and this Society played the leading part in its realization. In 1906 the Society set up as part of its own organization a Swiss Nature Protection Commission and charged it to search for an area in Switzerland suitable for establishment as a reserve, in which all the animal and plant life could be protected against interference by man and so could be left entirely to the play of natural forces. It was not easy to find in Switzerland a suitably large area which still retained its original characteristics, was virtually free from human settlement, and contained some wealth of fauna and flora. After a careful survey of the whole country it became clear that the most suitable region was the Lower Engadine, with its isolated valleys on the eastern border of the country. The district in which, at the beginning of the century, bears had still lived was the one in which primitive nature could be found in its truest state.

scholarly journals How does water yield respond to mountain pine beetle infestation in a semiarid forest?

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 4681-4699
Author(s):  
Jianning Ren ◽  
Jennifer C. Adam ◽  
Jeffrey A. Hicke ◽  
Erin J. Hanan ◽  
Christina L. Tague ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Tree Mortality ◽  
Hydrologic Model ◽  
Water Yield ◽  
Driving Mechanisms ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Interannual Climate Variability ◽  
Hydrologic Responses

Abstract. Mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreaks in the western United States result in widespread tree mortality, transforming forest structure within watersheds. While there is evidence that these changes can alter the timing and quantity of streamflow, there is substantial variation in both the magnitude and direction of hydrologic responses, and the climatic and environmental mechanisms driving this variation are not well understood. Herein, we coupled an eco-hydrologic model (RHESSys) with a beetle effects model and applied it to a semiarid watershed, Trail Creek, in the Bigwood River basin in central Idaho, USA, to examine how varying degrees of beetle-caused tree mortality influence water yield. Simulation results show that water yield during the first 15 years after beetle outbreak is controlled by interactions between interannual climate variability, the extent of vegetation mortality, and long-term aridity. During wet years, water yield after a beetle outbreak increased with greater tree mortality; this was driven by mortality-caused decreases in evapotranspiration. During dry years, water yield decreased at low-to-medium mortality but increased at high mortality. The mortality threshold for the direction of change was location specific. The change in water yield also varied spatially along aridity gradients during dry years. In wetter areas of the Trail Creek basin, post-outbreak water yield decreased at low mortality (driven by an increase in ground evaporation) and increased when vegetation mortality was greater than 40 % (driven by a decrease in canopy evaporation and transpiration). In contrast, in more water-limited areas, water yield typically decreased after beetle outbreaks, regardless of mortality level (although the driving mechanisms varied). Our findings highlight the complexity and variability of hydrologic responses and suggest that long-term (i.e., multi-decadal mean) aridity can be a useful indicator for the direction of water yield changes after a disturbance.

scholarly journals Mountain Pine Beetle Infestation: Cycling and Succession in Lodgepole Pine Forest

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 131-135
Author(s):  
W. Romme ◽  
J. Yavitt ◽  
D. Knight
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Yellowstone National Park ◽  
National Park ◽  
Pinus Contorta ◽  
Mountain Pine Beetle ◽  
Lodgepole Pine ◽  
Pine Forest ◽  
Mountain Pine ◽  
Pine Beetle ◽  
Surrounding Areas

A research project was initiated in 1980 to study the effects of outbreaks of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) on lodgepole pine forest (Pinus contorta Dougl. ssp. latifolia) in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas. This native insect apparently has long been associated with lodgepole pine, and reports of small numbers of beetles can be found in Park records as early as 1925. However, in the late 1940's and early 1950's major outbreaks began to occur on the Caribou and Targhee National Forests immediately to the west and southwest of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. An outbreak in Grand Teton National Park and the adjacent Teton National Forest began in the 1950's, with an explosive increase in 1961 followed by an eventual subsidence in the late 1960's. The first major outbreak in Yellowstone National Park began in the late 1960's in the Bechler and South Entrance areas, reaching a peak there in 1970 and later declining. Yearly aerial surveys conducted thereafter showed a steady northward movement of the outbreak through the western half of the Park at a rate of 1 - 5 km per year. By 1978 the peak outbreak was centered around West Yellowstone, with hundreds of infested trees per hectare. The outbreak is now moving north and east along the Madison and Gibbon Rivers, with the greatest beetle populations currently in the vicinity of Madison Junction.

scholarly journals The Swiss National Park

Nature ◽  
1923 ◽  
Vol 112 (2813) ◽  
pp. 478-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. SCHRÖTER
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
Swiss National Park
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