Pacific Forestry Centre
Canada
Acknowledgements
The following is a lightly edited transcript from the NRCan Pacific Forestry video and how scientists there use Conviron plant growth chambers for their research. Thank you to our contributors:
- Meghan Noseworthy, Research Manager, Pacific Forestry Centre
- Brian Van Hezewijk, Research Scientist, Pacific Forestry Centre
- Nicolas Feau, Research Scientist, Pacific Forestry Centre
About the Pacific Forestry Centre
At the Pacific Forestry Centre we conduct research on a number of different topics; insects and diseases and their effects on trees, forest fire research, wood fiber science, economic research and climate change. We're particularly interested in phytosanitary research. Phytosanitary is simply defined as plant health. We're interested in promoting plant health through the study of how insects and diseases interact with their hosts.
Climate Change & Plant Health
In 2021 Western Canada experienced a record-breaking heat wave. Our team is looking at how these extreme weather events affect populations of important forest pests like the western spruce budworm. The western spruce budworm is probably our most important forest pest of Douglas fir in Western Canada. Knowing whether or not these pests are going to become more or less important under future climate scenarios is really important for understanding how our forest will respond and the health of the forest under a future climate.
Our team is using the Conviron plant growth chambers to rear these insects under very carefully controlled conditions. By doing that we will be able to carefully monitor how quickly they grow and at what temperatures they are able to survive at in order to predict their response in the natural environment.
Tree & Pathogen Interaction
I work on the tree and the pathogen interaction which is the typical work of a plant pathologist. I bring the pathogen into the lab and work with an important tree for British Columbia - the Coastal Douglas- fir. I'm using the plant growth chambers to inoculate seedlings with this pathogen. I want to be able to control the temperature and reproduce what I see outside of the growth chamber. The humidity for example is a very important parameter in general for plant pathologies.
Insects being cold-blooded respond very carefully and critically to temperature in their environment. What we are trying to do here at the Canadian Forest Service is rear these insects under very carefully controlled temperature conditions so that over time we can develop mathematical models to predict how they're going to respond to extreme temperatures that we predict are likely going to happen under a climate changing future.
The forest coverage in Canada is nine percent of the world's forests so the Canadian Forest Service is really interested in not only protecting our forests but also ensuring that we're not spreading pests to other forests. We are not only interested in the environmental effects of pests and diseases but also how this affects us socially and environmentally.
By understanding how these insects respond to different temperatures it will allow us to develop strategies to better manage these pests in the future and hopefully develop recommendations so that foresters can manage the forest in a more scientific way.