Forest Insect and Disease Risk Maps

This website presents broad-scale, climate-based risk maps of native and non-native forest insects and diseases in Canada. This effort involves the collation of historical and recent field observations and the analysis of this data in relation to climate (see here for details on associated climate models). For species where data availability permits, users can also explore the intersection between climate suitability and host biomass across Canada (from Beaudoin et al. 2014) – providing a coarse indication of possible forest resources at risk.

We make use of two modeling approaches, ANUCLIM and MAXENT, to generate bioclimate models, sometimes called 'climate envelopes'. These models help identify areas that are climatically suitable for a species, though actual species distributions may be somewhat smaller than their climate envelopes due to factors such as competition from other species, soils, and physical barriers to dispersal (e.g., mountains). A similar approach has been followed for plant species at our Plant Hardiness website.

Maps of climate suitability are available for both current and future time periods. Rapid climate change has the potential to significantly affect the distribution and abundance of native and non-native forest insect and disease species and their plant hosts; hence developing an understanding of climate influences on their distributions is important.

This website presents broad-scale, climate-based risk maps of native and non-native forest insects and diseases in Canada. This effort involves the collation of historical and recent field observations and the analysis of this data in relation to climate (see here for details on associated climate models). For species where data availability permits, users can also explore the intersection between climate suitability and host biomass across Canada (from Beaudoin et al. 2014) – providing a coarse indication of possible forest resources at risk.

Resources

Native Insect and Diseases in Canada.

Non-native Insect and Diseases established in Canada.

Contact

For more information contact John.Pedlar@Canada.ca

Acknowledgments

We thank Kevin Porter, Vince Nealis, Ian DeMerchant and David Langor and the many CFS staff who have been involved in insect and disease collections over time. In addition many other agencies and individuals have contributed data.

References

Beaudoin, A., Bernier, P. Y., Guindon, L., Villemaire, P., Guo, X. J., Stinson, G., ... & Hall, R. J. (2014). Mapping attributes of Canada’s forests at moderate resolution through k NN and MODIS imagery. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 44(5), 521-532.

Nealis, V. G., DeMerchant, I., Langor, D., Noseworthy, M. K., Pohl, G., Porter, K., ... & Waring, V. (2015). Historical occurrence of alien arthropods and pathogens on trees in Canada. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 46(999), 1-9.