Is measuring of temperature fluctuations following bark beetle infestation in differentially managed forests objective?

Abstract

Proper management of woods infested by bark beetle – clearing infested trees to prevent spread of bark beetle, or leaving them to preserve biodiversity – is a hotly debated topic. Differences in temperature regime between differentially managed areas are often-used arguments in these discussions. Results from the field measurements are confusing. Therefore, here we review previous studies and report our results of using thermal sensors in the field to determine the factors that might affect the differences in temperature reported in previous papers. Our results indicate that the variability recorded in one particular habitat, dry forest, is associated with the specific characteristics of the locality of each microsite/sensor. We conclude that it is important to consider not only the temperatures recorded but also describe microsites in detail in terms of vegetation structure, sunshine or numbers of trees per unit area.