USDA forest research entomologist Chris Fettig of the USDA's Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, will speak on "Bark Beetles: How Tiny Insects Are Transforming Western Forests with a Little Help From Climate Change" at a seminar sponsored by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology at 4:10 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 1 in 122 Briggs Hall.

Fettig's seminar also will be virtual. The Zoom link:
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95882849672

UC Davis doctoral student Crystal Homicz will host him. 

"Bark beetles are a major disturbance in western forests," Fettig says in his abstract. "Several recent outbreaks of species such as mountain pine beetle, spruce beetle, and western pine beetle are among the most severe in recorded history. There is strong evidence that climate change has increased the impacts of bark beetles. For example, in California warming and exceptional drought resulted in mortality of more than a 100 million trees from 2014-2017. Much of this mortality was attributed to western pine beetle colonizing drought-stressed hosts. I will discuss observed and projected changes in climate, the direct and indirect effects of climate change on bark beetles and forests, and management actions that increase the resilience of forests to bark beetles and climate change."

Fettig advises Homicz, who began her studies with forest entomologist and chemical ecologist Steve Seybold (1959-2019). Her dissertation research focuses on western pine beetle and red turpentine beetle interactions with forest disturbances, such as drought, wildfire and prescribed fire. 

Fettig received his bachelor's degree (1993) and a master's degree (1996) from Virginia Tech University, and his doctorate in forest entomology in 1999 from the University of Georgia.

Of his current research, he writes on the USDA website: "My personal research program has three major emphases: (1) determination of short and long-term implications to forest health of prescribed fire and/or mechanical fuel treatments (silvicultural thinning) used in the large-scale restoration of fire-adapted forest ecosystems, (2) development of chemical, silvicultural and semiochemical-based monitoring and management tactics for Dendroctonus and Ips bark beetles, and (3) determination of the role of semiochemicals in the behavior of bark beetle species of economic importance."

Fettig's most recent publication, "Fire and Insect Interactions in North American Forests," co-authored by Homicz and several other colleagues, appears in a 2022 edition of Current Forestry Reports. Abstract: "Fire has both positive and negative effects on insects. Bark beetle and defoliator epidemics have positive and negative effects on wildfires. Additional study of these relationships is warranted given the effects of climate change on forests and forest disturbances, recent declines in some pollinator species in North America, and interests in restoring fire-adapted forest ecosystems."

The UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology's winter seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:10 p.m. in 122 Briggs Hall. All are virtual. They are coordinated by urban landscape entomologist Emily Meineke, assistant professor. (See schedule.) She may be reached at ekmeineke@ucdavis.edu for technical issues.