Oct. 16, 2007 - Forests planted with a diverse species of trees will be better able to withstand pest infestation than those that are sown plantation-style with just one species, a newly released study said.
A diversity of trees will support a greater range of insects than a single species, ensuring that there are more predators to keep down the numbers of a pest that, unchecked, could decimate a swath of woodland in an outbreak year.
"Mixed forests have a greater flexibility than plantation-style forests," explained Eldon Eveleigh, an entomologist with the Canadian Forest Service in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
The findings have implications for the management of forestry lands, and also commercial plantations.
Eveleigh and colleagues studied three patches of the Arcadian Forest in the eastern Canadian province of New Brunswick as part of an effort to examine how biodiversity could protect forests from pest damage.
They looked at three sections of forest: one was almost entirely composed of balsam fir, which is a favourite target of a moth called the spruce budworm. Budworm is one of the most destructive native insects in the northern spruce and fir forests of the eastern United States and Canada.
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A pest outbreak occurs once every 35 years, and once it has begun, it usually continues until the larvae consume much of the available foliage.
The other two plots were varying mixtures of balsam fir and hardwood species such as birch, maple and deciduous varieties.
