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Spring 2024

Lau, Nicole

Mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) disturbances, amplified by climate change, have led to extensive tree mortality and ecosystem succession in boreal forests across western Canada. Often following attack, former ectomycorrhizal (EM) pine stands in Alberta are replaced by...

Spring 2019

Beck, Jackson, L

Disturbances are frequent events across the Canadian boreal forests and can affect both below and above ground ecosystem processes at various temporal and spatial scales. We have limited understanding of how changes in the below ground fungal communities affect above ground plant communities....

Spring 2013

McIntosh, Anne C. S.

As climate changes and disturbance regimes shift, there is a need to better understand and anticipate potential impacts of both natural and anthropogenic disturbance agents on forest ecosystems. Lodgepole pine forests in western Canada are experiencing an unprecedented mountain pine beetle (MPB)...

Spring 2021

Hynes, Ashley

Climate change may cause reduced forest productivity and higher tree mortality due to water deficits that result from increased evapotranspiration. Such limitations may occur in some areas of the North American boreal forest, where precipitation is low and warming trends are high. This thesis...

Spring 2013

Pina Poujol, Pablo Cesar

In recent decades mountain pine beetle (MPB) has become an important natural disturbance agent in western Canada, thus the impact of this disturbance will likely be an important component affecting water resources in this region. Despite the widespread recognition of the potential changes, there...

Fall 2012

Therrien, Janet FCA

Warming winter trends due to climate change have allowed for a range expansion of the mountain pine beetle, and the beetle now threatens Canada’s economically and ecologically important jack pine forests. The beetle’s success in jack pine trees will depend upon successful colonization of the...

Spring 2014

Cigan, Paul W

The expansion of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) into naïve host ecosystems has been met by gaps in two key areas of research: (A) affects on the chemistry of forest soils, and (B) impacts on the regeneration of tree seedlings. To investigate linkages between both, we paired...

Spring 2013

Goodsman, Devin W.

In the last century the frequency and severity of outbreaks of tree-killing Dendroctonus beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) have increased. Small-scale drivers within trees likely drive outbreak dynamics across landscapes. At a small scale, variation in carbohydrate availability within the stems...

Fall 2023

Scaria, Francis

Alberta’s forest industry is predicted to be impacted by a short to medium-term decline in timber supply. Intensive silviculture tools, such as pre-commercial thinning, have been shown to increase individual tree growth, shorten rotation lengths and improve stand merchantability in important...

Fall 2019

Melanie Mullin

The lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) is Alberta’s provincial tree and critical to the forest industry. This pine species is the historical host for mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae). In western Canada, mountain pine beetle...