Mortality of Overstory Trembling Aspen in Relation to Outbreaks of the Forest Tent Caterpillar and the Spruce Budworm

Ecology ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Ghent

1969 ◽  
Vol 101 (12) ◽  
pp. 1269-1285 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. T. Bird

AbstractCytoplasmic polyhedrosis viruses are, in general, more infectious to spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens), and forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria (Hübner), than the nuclear polyhedrosis viruses which affect these insects. The cytoplasmic polyhedrosis viruses interfere with and retard development of the nuclear polyhedrosis viruses.Larvae of both insects, as they grow older, develop resistance to both viruses. Resistance develops more rapidly and to a greater degree against the nuclear polyhedrosis than against the cytoplasmic polyhedrosis viruses.The nuclear polyhedrosis viruses are more lethal than the cytoplasmic polyhedrosis viruses, and all larvae infected with the nuclear polyhedrosis viruses die except those infected so late in larval development that they are able to pupate. Most young larvae infected with the cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus die or are seriously affected, but infection has progressively less effect as the larvae mature.



1979 ◽  
Vol 111 (7) ◽  
pp. 841-846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Retnakaran ◽  
Larry Smith ◽  
Bill Tomkins ◽  
Jeffrey Granett

AbstractDimilin (25% wettable powder) was mixed in water and sprayed from a Grumman Agcat aircraft equipped with four micronair units at the rate of 70 g (active ingredients) / 4,67 L/ha (1 oz/0.5 U.S. gal per acre) on two stands of trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michx., heavily infested with forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria Hübner. The material was applied when the insects were in the first and second instars and the trees were starting to flush. Spray deposit analysis using a dye, Rhodamine-B, in the spray mix and spray plates in the plots indicated that conditions for spraying in the morning were better than those in the evening as expected. Total control of the forest tent caterpillar with very little defoliation of the trees was achieved.



2005 ◽  
Vol 137 (5) ◽  
pp. 615-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya L. Evenden

Trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michx. (Salicaceae), is the most widely distributed tree species in North America (Perala 1990) and is considered to be an ecologically (Hogg et al. 2002) and economically important (Brandt et al. 2003) component of the boreal forest. Due to the recently increased economic value of trembling aspen (Brandt et al. 2003), the impact of native insect defoliators on tree growth and mortality has become commercially important. Two of the most significant defoliators of trembling aspen throughout its range in Canada are the forest tent caterpillar (FTC), Malacosoma disstria Hübner (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae), and the large aspen tortrix (LAT), Choristoneura conflictana Walker (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae).



1977 ◽  
Vol 109 (7) ◽  
pp. 1021-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. G. Wilson

During the summers of 1973 and 1974 examination of field collected samples of the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana, revealed the presence of a Pleistophora sp. (Wilson 1975). It has subsequently been determined as Pleistophora schubergi (Weiser 196 1 and pers. comm.). This microsporidium also appeared in laboratory cultures of the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria. M. disstria is often infected in nature by the microsporidium Nosema disstriae. Preliminary tests were undertaken to compare the effects of these two microsporidia on the development of the forest tent caterpillar.



2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1586-1598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry J. Cooke ◽  
Jens Roland

We investigated the long-term effects of drought and defoliation by forest tent caterpillars on trembling aspen radial growth in the province of Ontario using a dendroecological approach. Drought, as measured by Hogg’s climate moisture index (CMI), was found to have no discernible impact on aspen radial increment in either northeastern or northwestern Ontario during the study period 1930–2003. Forest tent caterpillar outbreaks were strongly decadal in periodicity in both regions and resulted in similar patterns of periodic variation in tree ring-width chronologies, indicating that, in humid environments prone to spatially synchronized tent caterpillar outbreaks, herbivory is the main factor limiting aspen radial growth. We show that the major decadal outbreak cycles of forest tent caterpillar can, by filtering with the computer program OUTBREAK, be reliably reconstructed from raw aspen ring-width chronologies. We determine the filtering parameters that give the most reliable reconstruction fit to observed patterns of outbreaks in each region. We show that the periodic outbreak signal is present even in areas where aerial surveyors frequently failed to detect significant levels of defoliation, and that the outbreak signal necessarily includes minor defoliation episodes that occur in between the major decadal outbreak cycles.





2012 ◽  
Vol 144 (6) ◽  
pp. 756-763 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Gray ◽  
Don P. Ostaff

AbstractSynchrony between herbivore and host phenology can be an important factor in herbivore fitness. The survival of first-instar forest tent caterpillar (FTC) (Malacosoma disstria Hübner; Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) larvae and performance of surviving larvae are reduced when egg hatch and host budbreak are asynchronous. Budbreak in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux; Salicaceae) and largetooth aspen (Populus grandidentata Michaux; Salicaceae), two preferred hosts of FTC, differ by ∼14 days. We examined the phenological requirements of FTC egg hatch to see if an inherent difference exists between FTC egg masses on the two hosts, and if the difference would promote synchrony with each host. Egg masses from a haphazard selection of clones of each host were collected in a mixed stand of trembling and largetooth aspen in New Brunswick, Canada. Egg masses were subjected to controlled temperature regimes in the laboratory, and hatch was monitored daily. Despite the differences in host phenologies and the obvious benefits of being synchronised with host phenology, egg masses collected from trembling aspen began hatching only 3 days earlier, and completed hatching only 2 days earlier, than egg masses collected from largetooth aspen. Bet hedging is discussed as a possible strategy to explain the absence of host-specific synchrony between egg hatch of FTC and the hosts it selects for oviposition.



1950 ◽  
Vol 28d (6) ◽  
pp. 308-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. G. Wellington ◽  
J. J. Fettes ◽  
R. M. Belyea ◽  
K. B. Turner

Biological and meteorological records were examined for periods when outbreaks of the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.), were known to have occurred in northeastern North America. The survey showed that the following significant events occurred during the period of three to four years preceding an outbreak. Decreasing annual numbers of low pressure centers passed over the area in which the outbreak later occurred. Therefore, the outbreak began at a time of decreased or minimal storminess. Drought occurred, chiefly in June and July, but also occasionally in spring and autumn. Annual increments of host trees on dry sites declined. Outbreaks of the forest tent caterpillar, Malacosoma disstria Hbn., occurred, particularly in Ontario. These events, in aggregate, occurred so consistently before spruce budworm outbreaks that they have future predictive value. In addition, they reinforce some suggestions made by earlier authors and suggest modifications of hypotheses concerning the behavior of developing populations of the spruce budworm.



2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 1929-1934 ◽  
Author(s):  
E H Hogg ◽  
M Hart ◽  
V J Lieffers

Recent studies of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) in western Canada have shown a correlation between past insect defoliation events and the formation of narrow, abnormally pale-coloured ("white") tree rings. The objectives of this study were to test the hypothesis that defoliation causes the formation of white rings and to examine how defoliation affects ring width and density. We experimentally defoliated 7- to 18-year-old aspen in June, July, or August 1997 and subsequently found that white rings were formed the same year in all aspen that were severely defoliated in early June. These white rings were much narrower than in adjacent trees left as controls, and mean xylem density of the white rings (0.27 g·cm–3) was significantly reduced relative to normal rings (0.35–0.40 g·cm–3). In the year following defoliation, the tree rings remained narrow, but their appearance and density had returned to normal. Aspen defoliated later in the season formed relatively normal rings in 1997, but ring widths were reduced in 1998. The results confirm that white rings in aspen can be a useful retrospective indicator of the severe, early season defoliation that is typical during major outbreaks of forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria Hbn.) and other insects.



2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (8) ◽  
pp. 1606-1617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Moulinier ◽  
François Lorenzetti ◽  
Yves Bergeron

Forest tent caterpillar (FTC; Malacosoma disstria Hübner) outbreaks represent an important natural disturbance in broadleaf-dominated stands; however, their effects on forest gap dynamics are not well understood. To describe such effects on canopy gaps and tree recruitment patterns, we investigated 20 trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) dominated stands defoliated severely over 0 to 3 years during the last outbreak (1998–2003) in the northwestern Clay Belt of Quebec. Results show that canopy opening more than tripled (12.3%–43.7%) from 0 to 3 years of severe defoliation, and mean gap size was more than 12 times greater (7.2–87.5 m2) over the same gradient. Regeneration patterns suggest that aspen recruitment is not sufficient to completely restore closed canopies in stands defoliated 0, 1, and 2 years, whereas it should be sufficient in stands defoliated 3 years, where large gaps allow trembling aspen establishment. Our results clearly indicate that FTC outbreaks represent an important factor of gap formation in trembling aspen stands. At the stand level, gaps create uneven stand structures, and at the landscape level, FTC defoliation duration creates a large range of even to uneven stand structures.



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