Denser forests across the USA experience more damage from insects and pathogens

Christopher Asaro; Frank H Koch; Kevin M Potter

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-30675-z

Denser forests across the USA experience more damage from insects and pathogens

Sci Rep. 2023 Mar 4;13(1):3666. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-30675-z.

Authors

Christopher Asaro^#¹, Frank H Koch^#², Kevin M Potter^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection, Atlanta, GA, 30309, USA.
² USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA. frank.h.koch@usda.gov.
³ Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA.
⁴ USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709, USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Forests across much of the United States are becoming denser. Trees growing in denser stands experience more competition for essential resources, which can make them more vulnerable to disturbances. Forest density can be expressed in terms of basal area, a metric that has been used to assess vulnerability of some forests to damage by certain insects or pathogens. A raster map of total tree basal area (TBA) for the conterminous United States was compared with annual (2000-2019) survey maps of forest damage due to insects and pathogens. Across each of four regions, median TBA was significantly higher within forest areas defoliated or killed by insects or pathogens than in areas without recorded damage. Therefore, TBA may serve as a regional-scale indicator of forest health and a first filter for identifying areas that merit finer-scale analysis of forest conditions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Forests*
Insecta*
Records
Trees