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Survivorship Bias in the Tree-Ring Reconstructions of Forest Tent Caterpillar Outbreaks Using Trembling Aspen

When trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) from northern Minnesota, USA, were sampled in 2000, the impact on annual radial growth of a 1951-1954 outbreak of forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria [Hbn.]) was found to be just as strong and clear as it was when estimated from samples taken in 1955. During those 45 intervening years, at least three tent caterpillar outbreaks occurred, yet the statistical distribution of ring-width profiles did not change. This suggests that survivorship bias is not a major impediment to the use of aspen ring widths for inferring the magnitude of past tent caterpillar outbreaks.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/262567
Date January 2003
CreatorsCooke, Barry J., Miller, William E., Roland, Jens
ContributorsNatural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Center, University of Minnesota, Department of Entomology, St. Paul, MN, University of Alberta, Department of Biological Sciences, Edmonton, AB
PublisherTree-Ring Society
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle
RightsCopyright © Tree-Ring Society. All rights reserved.
Relationhttp://www.treeringsociety.org

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