Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management

The eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) is the most serious insect pest in Central European forests. During the past two decades, extreme meteorological events and subsequent beetle infestations have killed millions of cubic meters of standing spruce trees. Not all the infested stands...

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Main Authors: Alexander Angst, Regula Rüegg, Beat Forster
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2012-01-01
Series:Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/321084
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author Alexander Angst
Regula Rüegg
Beat Forster
author_facet Alexander Angst
Regula Rüegg
Beat Forster
author_sort Alexander Angst
collection DOAJ
description The eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) is the most serious insect pest in Central European forests. During the past two decades, extreme meteorological events and subsequent beetle infestations have killed millions of cubic meters of standing spruce trees. Not all the infested stands could be cleared in time, and priorities in management had to be set. Natural or man-made buffer zones of about 500 meters in width are frequently defined to separate differently managed stands in Central Europe. While the buffer zones seem to be effective in most of the cases, their impact has not been studied in detail. Beetle densities were therefore assessed in three case studies using pheromone traps along transects, leading from infested stands into spruce-free buffer zones. The results of the trap catches allow an estimation of the buffer zone influence on densities and the dispersal of Ips typographus. Beetle densities were found to decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the infested spruce stands. The trap catches were below high-risk thresholds within a few hundred meters of the infested stands. The decrease in catches was more pronounced in open land and in an urban area than in a broadleaf stand. Designed buffer zones of 500 m width without spruce can therefore very probably help to reduce densities of spreading beetles.
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series Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
spelling doaj-art-8adfd29cbe7741d3a22bb202fa178ce92025-08-20T03:37:33ZengWileyPsyche: A Journal of Entomology0033-26151687-74382012-01-01201210.1155/2012/321084321084Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for ManagementAlexander Angst0Regula Rüegg1Beat Forster2Research Unit Forest Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandDepartment of Environmental System Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH, ETH-Zentrum, 8092 Zürich, SwitzerlandResearch Unit Forest Dynamics, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, SwitzerlandThe eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) is the most serious insect pest in Central European forests. During the past two decades, extreme meteorological events and subsequent beetle infestations have killed millions of cubic meters of standing spruce trees. Not all the infested stands could be cleared in time, and priorities in management had to be set. Natural or man-made buffer zones of about 500 meters in width are frequently defined to separate differently managed stands in Central Europe. While the buffer zones seem to be effective in most of the cases, their impact has not been studied in detail. Beetle densities were therefore assessed in three case studies using pheromone traps along transects, leading from infested stands into spruce-free buffer zones. The results of the trap catches allow an estimation of the buffer zone influence on densities and the dispersal of Ips typographus. Beetle densities were found to decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the infested spruce stands. The trap catches were below high-risk thresholds within a few hundred meters of the infested stands. The decrease in catches was more pronounced in open land and in an urban area than in a broadleaf stand. Designed buffer zones of 500 m width without spruce can therefore very probably help to reduce densities of spreading beetles.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/321084
spellingShingle Alexander Angst
Regula Rüegg
Beat Forster
Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management
Psyche: A Journal of Entomology
title Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management
title_full Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management
title_fullStr Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management
title_full_unstemmed Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management
title_short Declining Bark Beetle Densities (Ips typographus, Coleoptera: Scolytinae) from Infested Norway Spruce Stands and Possible Implications for Management
title_sort declining bark beetle densities ips typographus coleoptera scolytinae from infested norway spruce stands and possible implications for management
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/321084
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