Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-16-2025
Department
College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science
Abstract
Disturbances from insect pests threaten ecologically and economically important goods and services supplied by forests, including wood production and carbon sequestration. We highlight the factors that influence these services’ resistance, a term quantifying the initial response to disturbance. Insects inflict damage through a range of mechanisms, prompting distinct plant physiological responses that scale to influence ecosystem processes and, with time, goods and services. The degree and timing of tree mortality and defoliation affect the amount of residual vegetation available to support compensatory wood production and influence carbon sequestration by changing rates of detritus-fueled decomposition. Compounding, or sequential, insect attacks may prime a forest for additional disturbance, further eroding wood production and carbon sequestration. Forest management practices that promote biological and structural diversity, and augment or retain limiting biological and nutrient resources, may buffer against the effects of insect pests on wood production and carbon sequestration.
Publication Title
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Recommended Citation
Gough, C.,
Bond-Lamberty, B.,
Fahey, R.,
McGuigan, C.,
Alveshere, B.,
Clay, C.,
McClain, E.,
Flower, C.,
Mathes, K.,
Johnson, A.,
Haber, L.,
Dorheim, K.,
Johnson, D.,
Nave, L.,
&
Niedermaier, K.
(2025).
Resist!: Sustaining forest carbon sequestration and wood production after insect disturbance.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
http://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2861
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/1816
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2861