Abstract
Analyzing patterns of forest pest infestation, disease occurrences, forest declines, and related biotic stress factors is necessary to monitor the health of forested ecosystems and their potential impacts on forest structure, composition, biodiversity, and species distributions (Castello and others 1995). Introduced nonnative insects and diseases, in particular, can extensively damage the diversity, ecology, and economy of affected areas (Brockerhoff and others 2006, Mack and others 2000). Examining pest occurrences and related stress factors from a landscape-scale perspective is useful, given the regional extent of many infestations and the large-scale complexity of interactions between host distribution, stress factors, and the development of pest outbreaks (Holdenrieder and others 2004). The detection of geographic clusters of disturbance is one such landscape-scale approach, which allows for the identification of areas at greatest risk of significant impact and for the selection of locations for more intensive monitoring and analysis.
Parent Publication
Citation
Potter, Kevin M. 2013. Large-scale patterns of insect and disease activity in the conterminous United States and Alaska from the national insect and disease detection survey, 2009. In: Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L., eds. 2013. Forest Health Monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2010. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-GTR-176. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 15-29.
