Individual lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta) were fertilized with urea at nitrogen (N) inputs equivalent to 0, 315, or 630 kg/ha. Four months after application of the fertilizer, inner bark tissue N concentrations were significantly higher in the trees that had received the low dose (315 kg/ha) fertilization treatment than in the control trees; trees that had received the high-dose treatment (630 kg/ha) were intermediate and not significantly different from either of the other treatments. There was a significant positive correlation between N concentration in inner bark tissue and larval mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae). In vitro studies on synthetic growth media examined effects of temperature and N concentration on N concentration of two common fungal associates of the mountain pine beetle (Ophiostoma clavigerum and Ophiostoma montium). Increasing N concentration in growth media significantly increased fungal N concentrations in both O. clavigerum and O. montium. Furthermore, N concentration was consistently higher in O. clavigerum than in O. montiun. Neither species had sufficient growth at 30°C, nor did O. clavigerum at 15°C, to test N concentration. However, for O. montium, increasing temperatures decreased fungal N concentrations. There was no correlation between N concentration of O. clavigerum and growth temperature. Potential impacts of ingestion of the fungal species by developing mountain pine beetle larvae-infesting trees under various environmental conditions such as increasing temperatures are discussed.
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1 June 2010
Nitrogen Concentration in Mountain Pine Beetle Larvae Reflects Nitrogen Status of the Tree Host and Two Fungal Associates
Stephen P. Cook,
Brian M. Shirley,
Paul J. Zambino
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Dendroctonus
Nitrogen fertilization
Ophiostoma
symbiotic fungi
temperature