What is it about?

Determining which pine trees can resist bark beetle attacks, and which pine trees will die from attacks is difficult. We found that the number of vertical resin ducts in a pine tree's annual growth rings is among the best predictors found to date of overall tree susceptibility to bark beetles; more ducts = more defense. Vertical resin ducts produce and move defensive resins within pines, and can be thought of as structures similar to pipes that move water up and down inside tall buildings.

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Why is it important?

Bark beetles have recently killed billions of trees across North America and Europe. Resin duct counts allow managers to determine which trees are strongly defended and which tree's are weakly defended. Removing weaker trees reduces the chance that bark beetle population grow larger, and allows stronger trees to dominate future gene pools. Resin ducts can be counted in small cores taken from living trees without harming a tree's health allowing for non-destructive assessments of defenses.

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This page is a summary of: Resin duct characteristics associated with tree resistance to bark beetles across lodgepole and limber pines, Oecologia, December 2013, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s00442-013-2841-2.
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