Part 1 of 2.
Victor Lieffers, professor and chair of the Department of Natural Resources for the University of Alberta, talks about the keys to successful natural regeneration of serotinous pine. He discusses lodgepole pine’s adaptations, the value of fire and cone droppage, and current research being undertaken.
Lodgepole pine is adapted to regenerate after wildfire; fire breaks the resin bond of the cones. Thick litter or feather mosses are poor seedbeds, but fire removes organic matter thereby creating a seedbed. Yet the seed banks change after Mountain Pine Beetle attacks. He talks about cone droppage, the spread of seeds, and research about the conditions for canopy cone opening – as well as about that happened to the cones during the phases of the tree deaths due to Mountain Pine Beetle attacks.
After 6 years post-MPB outbreak, forty five percent of the canopy seed remains while six percent are still in cones buried in the forest floor. The germination capacity and cone age in years is also discussed. .
This presentation was a part of the Mountain Pine Beetle Information Exchange Forum, in April of 2014.
