Browsing by Subject "Crumenulopsis sororia"

Overall warming of climate, causing drought and sometimes co-occurring with insect outbreaks poses a risk to tree health and has been linked to tree mortality in many areas. The drought of 2003 was particularly severe in many regions in Europe, including Finland. It exceeded many previous drought years in its severity and intensity. Also, in the summer of 2006, 25% of the permanent forest sample plots of Finland National Forestry Inventory showed symptoms of drought damages. The Finnish south-west archipelago is high-risk drought area, and dry summers becoming more frequent and severe may cause severe forest damages in the area. In this study we investigated forest damages in Kemiönsaari, South-West Finland, approximately 60° 11'N, 22° 33'E. The forest damages there were first discovered in 2009, by local forest society, and has been spreading in the area. The crowns of Scots Pines (Pinus sylvestris) in the area were partially or completely defoliated. The defoliation started from the top of the canopy and spread evenly downwards. The central research questions of this study were: 1. Has the past drought years affected the growth of Pinus sylvestris in Kemiönsaari? 2. How is the Pine bark bug, Aradus cinnamomeus, affecting the trees hydraulic conductivity? 3. How is the Crumenulopsis sororia affecting the trees hydraulic conductivity? The findings provide support for the first research question stating that there has been a notable reduction in growth of the trees in the study area. The superposed epoch analysis revealed that droughts occurred in the past 20 years, reduced the radial growth of Scots pines. However, the results from this were within the lower 95% bootstrapped confidence limit and are not statistically significant. The results indicated that the most limiting factor to radial growth of Pinus sylvestris was precipitation in June, and last year July. Water shortage during the growing season decreases photosynthetic production and causes physiological stress to tree and is known to promote outbreaks of many insect. This study showed that the hydraulic conductivity of Scots pines in this area is not decreased by the pathogen Crumenulopsis sororia or Aradus cinnamomeus, in contrary, there was a clear correlation with higher hydraulic conductivity in the top of the crown of Scots pine’s where Crumenulopsis sororia or Aradus cinnamomeus were present.