A Reexamination of the Relationship Between Bark Thickness and Susceptibility of Eastern White Pines to White-Pine Weevil Attack
The relationship between bark thickness at breast height and susceptibility of eastern white pine ( Pinus strobus L.) to repeated attacks by the white-pine weevil ( Pissodes strobi Peck.) was reexamined. The least weeviled trees in a 25-year-old provenance test plantation had the thinnest bark, but overall the correlation between number of weevil attacks and bark thickness was low (r = 0.24). The least weeviled trees were also the smallest in diameter at breast height (dbh), and the correlation between dbh and bark thickness was high. Mean bark thickness adjusted for variation in dbh by covariance analysis was not significantly related to numbers of weevil attacks, and bark thickness varied widely within trees. Therefore, bark thickness at breast height does not seem to be a reliable criterion for distinguishing highly susceptible from more weevil-resistant white pines.
Download this file:
Download this file — PDF document, 1138KbDetails
Author(s): Ronald C. Wilkinson
Publication: Tree Improvement and Genetics - Northeastern Forest Tree Improvement Conference - 1982
Section: Session 2