Document Type
Peer-Review Article
Abstract
A tamarack [Larix laricina (Du Roi) K. Koch] provenance plantation, consisting of 33 seed sources from the United States and Canada, was established in 1969 in southern Michigan (Kalamazoo County). About half of the trees were removed in fall 1984 when the stand was thinned, with the cut trees piled on the edge of the stand. The stand then experienced a severe ice storm in January 1985. The eastern larch beetle, Dendroctonus simplex LeConte, colonized the cut logs in 1985 and also infested many of the standing trees. By the end of 1986, over half the remaining trees had been killed by D. simplex, with six seed sources suffering no beetle-related tree mortality, twenty having 20-61% tree mortality, and seven having 67-100% mortality. Mean tree height and DBH were negatively related to the latitude of the seed source origin. However, no significant linear relationships were found between percent tree mortality in 1986 with either mean tree DBH or latitude of the seed-source origin, but there was a significant negative relationship with increasing ice-storm damage.
Recommended Citation
Haack, Robert A. and Blank, Richard W.
2023.
"Observations on a Dendroctonus simplex (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) Outbreak in a Rangewide Tamarack (Larix laricina) Provenance Plantation in Michigan,"
The Great Lakes Entomologist, vol 56
(2)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22543/0090-0222.2467
Available at:
https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol56/iss2/7