The Government of Canada and Government of Alberta have funded a suit of new projects to address the ongoing mountain pine beetle threat to Alberta's forests.
We called for proposals in November 2021 and February 2022 and out of the many proposals, we selected 23 research projects that respond to five key research themes. These projects are now underway, and their principal investigators have provided the following short introductions. Additional project introductions will be added to the site once they are reviewed and formatted.
Modeling Eastern Spread Risk of Mountain Pine Beetle Using Host Genetic Ancestry
Dr. Catherine Cullingham, Dr. Rhiannon Peery, Jessica Duffy
The physiological costs and consequences of overwintering in Mountain Pine Beetle
Dr. Heath MacMillan, Dr. Catherine Cullingham, Dr. Maya Evenden, Dr. Mads Anderson
Improving monitoring tools to detect mountain pine beetle at low densities in novel habitats: incorporating host-tree stress and fungal volatiles in beetle attraction
Dr. Nadir Erbilgin
Modelling long-term dynamics of MPB in Alberta under climate change
Mark Lewis and Dr. Micah Brush
Assessment of eastern spread risk of Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) through studies on beetle dispersal and host colonization
Dr. Maya L. Evenden, Dr. Antonia Musso, Leanne Petro
Dynamic species distribution modelling to predict mountain pine beetle
boreal invasion
Dr. Allan L. Carroll, Dr. Vivek Srivastava
Efficient monitoring of mountain pine beetle outbreak spots using artificial intelligence applied to drone thermal imagery
Dr. Nadir Erbilgin, Dr. Nilanjan Ray, Dr. Gregory McDermind
Toward pre-emptive management of future outbreaks: predicting the distribution of post-epidemic mountain pine beetle populations in the western boreal forest
Dr. Allan L. Carroll, Dr. Michael Howe, and Dr. Stanley Pokorny
Effects of mountain pine beetle outbreaks on population dynamics of secondary bark and ambrosia beetles
Dr. Nadir Erbilgin
Whitebark Pine Gene Conservation for the Northern Range in Alberta
Jodie Krakowski
Development of fine spatial resolution tree species in-
formation for MPB-impacted ecosystems for Species-at-Risk habitat
assessment
Dr. Nicholas Coops, Dr. Laura Finnegan, Cameron McLelland, Chris Bater
Using innovative techniques to understand how mountain pine beetle is shifting ecosystem composition and configuration in Jasper National Park
Dr. Eric Higgs, James Tricker, Dr. Jeanine Rhemtulla
Soil carbon stocks in forests recovering from mountain pine beetle outbreak: a possible C sink?
Dr. Justine Karst, Dr. Oleksandra (Sasha) Hararuk
Wildlife responses to forest stands impacted by mountain pine beetle in western Canada
Dr. Laura Finnegan
Impacts of the Mountain Pine Beetle on the snow hydrology of the McLeod River watershed
Dr. Siraj ul Islam and Dr. Stephen Déry
Generation of Tree level Fire Fuel Information across
MPB Infestation Mosaics
Dr. Nicholas Coops, Chris Bater
Assessment of Risk Factors Influencing Landscape Level Fire in MPB Forests
Dr. Christopher Bone, Dr. Khurram, and Steve Taylor
Spatio-temporal variability in post-mountain pine
beetle outbreak fuels in Jasper National Park using terrestrial laser
scanning and bi-temporal, multi-spectral airborne LiDAR
Dr. Laura Chasmer, Dr. Chris Hopkinson, Dr. Patrick James, Dr. Zhouxin Xi
How do the spatial legacies of mountain pine beetle outbreaks affect fire severity in Canadian lodgepole pine forests?
Dr. Patrick M A James, Dr. Marc-André Parisien, Dr. Chris Stockdale
Understanding fire behaviour in mountain pine beetle disturbed vs. managed fuel complexes using novel data sources
Dr. Laura Chasmer, Dr. Chris Hopkinson, Dr. Patrick James, Ms. Tristan Skretting, Dr. Zhouxin Xi
