Blue spruce (Picea pungens) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) experience varying levels of spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby)) colonization, yet the underlying differences and mechanisms resulting in lower colonization for blue spruce are not known. Both spruce species have important roles in subalpine ecosystems where examining changes in mortality, distribution,...
Wildfire impacts have intensified in many ecosystems across the western United States due to the combined impact of fire exclusion, climate change, and land management practices. However, on many of these landscapes, fire is a fundamental ecological process that has shaped vegetation structural and compositional diversity, ecosystem function, landscape pattern,...