With climate warming and more frequent and severe droughts, western North America has experienced increases in disturbances arising from native bark beetle outbreaks. The focus of the talk will be on common bark beetle species and their hosts, environmental triggers for beetle outbreaks, management options for bark beetles and the ecological consequences of extensive outbreaks on forest dynamics.
This webinar will be presented by Dr. Jodi Axelson, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist at UC Berkeley. Dr. Axelson’s research has primarily focused on how insect outbreaks by native bark beetles and defoliators impact forest dynamics. Jodi was educated and previously worked in British Columbia Canada, where a massive mountain pine beetle outbreak affected over 10 million hectares of the province in the 2000s. Since coming to California just over a year ago, Jodi has focused her extension activities on drought and bark beetle driven mortality across the state. Participating on the Governor’s Tree Mortality Task Force and doing extension work in the Sierra Nevada provided Dr. Axelson an opportunity to see the extensive tree mortality first hand and to identify critical knowledge gaps. In the past summer Jodi has started two research projects: one is focused on quantifying different ecosystem elements of the mortality event along a south to north transect in the Sierra Nevada, the other is using Unmanned Aerial Systems (e.g., drones) to determine if early detection of bark beetle infestations is possible. Both of these project have strong connections to land management communities and will inform decision making and management of bark beetle disturbances.