Introduction: Bark beetles, management, and climate change

Climate change is altering forest patterns and processes worldwide. Several species of bark beetles that have a long co-evolutionary history with their host trees are responding positively to changes in tree physiology and to warmer temperatures. There are major ecological, economic, social, and political implications emerging from large-scale tree mortality due to population outbreaks of bark beetles. This book focuses on the complex, intricate, and multiscale spatial and temporal interactions between climate change, bark beetles, host trees, and their ensuing management in forested ecosystems. We focus on six major themes including changes in both insect and host tree distribution and physiology, responses of bark beetles to changes in disturbance regimes, ecosystem-level cascading impacts of bark beetle outbreaks, responses of bark beetle associates to climate change, and future considerations for management to create and maintain resilient and sustainable forests under climatic changes.