Socioecological impacts of multiple forest insect outbreaks in the pinaleño spruce-fir forest, Arizona

Abstract

Multiple high-severity insect outbreaks and wildfires dramatically altered the character of the Pinaleño high-elevation forests with notable impacts on ecosystem services. The Pinaleños are a small mountain range positioned close to large population centers, but not so close that any large industry is dependent on their resources, so regional and local impacts of the insect outbreaks to provisional resources were minor. There were qualitative impacts to cultural services, particularly to recreation, but no documented economic impacts. Effects on carbon and fuels were significant, but affected firefighting operations more than wildfire severity. The Pinaleños are positioned in an area of high biodiversity, and impacts on habitats of unique species were sometimes positive but also sometimes severely negative, especially on a relict population of Engelmann spruce and the critically endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. The Pinaleño situation illustrates how ecological disturbances can have a minor immediate economic impact but severe impacts on ecosystems and ecosystem services.