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The northern bark beetle (Ips duplicatus), in Europe originally restricted to northern countries, expanded its distribution range to eastern Europe in the 20th century and is now causing considerable damage in spruce forests. In the past decades its presence has been confirmed in several Central European countries. By means of pheromone traps and visual inspection of infested logs, in this study we demonstrate that I. duplicatus is also present in the Rhine valley in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Breeding galleries with beetles and exit holes in an infested spruce log indicate that the trapped beetles had successfully developed in a local stand nearby. An inquiry addressed to European entomologists was carried out to obtain information and references concerning the year of the first record or mention of I. duplicatus in their respective countries. This information substantiated the expansion of its historical range to the southeast in the middle of the last century and clearly showed recent movement westward, with Switzerland and Germany currently the westernmost countries where this species occurs. This recent range expansion is likely attributed to the transport of infested timber. The economic significance of this expanding bark beetle species is discussed in view of its co-occurrence with the notorious pest species I. typographus.

Bark beetles are among the most devastating biotic agents affecting forests globally and several species are expected to be favored by climate change. Given the potential interactions of insect outbreaks with other biotic and abiotic disturbances, and the potentially strong impact of changing disturbance regimes on forest resources, investigating climatic drivers of destructive bark beetle outbreaks is of paramount importance. We analyzed 17 time-series of the amount of wood damaged by Ips typographus, the most destructive pest of Norway spruce forests, collected across 8 European countries in the last three decades. We aimed to quantify the relative importance of key climate drivers in explaining timber loss dynamics, also testing for possible synergistic effects. Local outbreaks shared the same drivers, including increasing summer rainfall deficit and warm temperatures. Large availability of storm-felled trees in the previous year was also strongly related to an increase in timber loss, likely by providing an alternative source of breeding material. We did not find any positive synergy among outbreak drivers. On the contrary, the occurrence of large storms reduced the positive effect of warming temperatures and rainfall deficit. The large surplus of breeding material likely boosted I. typographus population size above the density threshold required to colonize and kill healthy trees irrespective of other climate triggers. Importantly, we found strong negative density dependence in I. typographus that may provide a mechanism for population decline after population eruptions. Generality in the effects of complex climatic events across different geographical areas suggests that the large-scale drivers can be used as early warning indicators of increasing local outbreak probability., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

The predicted increase in temperature, dry summers, and extreme meteorological events will affect many harmful species both by directly accelerating their propagation rates as well as by weakening their host plants. There might also be shifts in the interrelations in species communities that can hardly be predicted. Some fungal species, that had previously been inconspicuous, caused notable damages in the drought periods of the last two decades. Higher winter temperatures often increase the survival rates of many fungal and insect species. Because hot and dry summers are likely to become more frequent and heavy storms tend to occur more often, an increase in massive outbreaks of bark beetles with corresponding damage is to be expected. As a result of global trade, more invasive alien fungi and insects are introduced into Europe where the climatic conditions become more favorable for them to establish themselves on native or introduced host trees. Insects and diseases can have a profound impact on forest dynamics. Therefore, these disturbances must be included in the discussion of future tree species composition and of forest development scenarios.

Pine processionary moth, Thaumetopea pityocampa, is a model insect indicator of global warming, the northwards and upwards range expansion of this Mediterranean species being directly associated with the recent warming up. The knowledge about the drivers of moth expansion is synthesized. A first standardized mapping of the northern expansion edge, from Western Europe to Turkey, is presented, then detailed for 20 countries of Europe, Asia Minor and North Africa, including future trends. Additional data about the responses of the other Thaumetopoea species are given. Finally, the chapter points out the importance of the man-mediated introductions in the expansion process. © Éditions Quæ, 2015.

The eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) is the most serious insect pest in Central European forests. During the past two decades, extreme meteorological events and subsequent beetle infestations have killed millions of cubic meters of standing spruce trees. Not all the infested stands could be cleared in time, and priorities in management had to be set. Natural or man-made buffer zones of about 500 meters in width are frequently defined to separate differently managed stands in Central Europe. While the buffer zones seem to be effective in most of the cases, their impact has not been studied in detail. Beetle densities were therefore assessed in three case studies using pheromone traps along transects, leading from infested stands into spruce-free buffer zones. The results of the trap catches allow an estimation of the buffer zone influence on densities and the dispersal ofIps typographus. Beetle densities were found to decrease rapidly with increasing distance from the infested spruce stands. The trap catches were below high-risk thresholds within a few hundred meters of the infested stands. The decrease in catches was more pronounced in open land and in an urban area than in a broadleaf stand. Designed buffer zones of 500 m width without spruce can therefore very probably help to reduce densities of spreading beetles.