Dr. Tague, as a member of UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), collaborated on a new publication that will appear in New Phytologist this month (an early view of the publication is now available online), “Tree mortality from drought, insects, and their interactions in a changing climate”. The study examines the interactions between drought and insects, and their impact on forest health. Dr. Tague appears in a UCSB press release highlighting the study’s research.
The western U.S. has been a hotspot for forest die-offs such as this one in Colorado. Photo Credit: William M. Ciesla, Forest Health ManagementFigure 1. (a) Cumulative mortality rates (% basal area, BA) four major forest types (below) in western US forests averaged over 2000–2013, with fire-caused mortality removed from US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data. (b) Annual mortality rates (% BA yr−1) of major tree species in the western US from US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data. (c) Field-ascribed proximate cause of mortality that crews noted about individual dead trees in Juniperus osteosperma (JUOS), Pinus edulis (PIED), Pinus contorta (PICO), and Populus tremuloides (POTR) (Supporting Information Notes S1).
The Tague Team Lab 