Scientific Innovation

Canada is home to ten percent of the world’s forests and is a leader in sustainable forest management. But a tree-killing fungus carried by the mountain pine beetle is devastating pine forests in the west. Having recently crossed the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia into Alberta, there is concern that boreal forests across Canada might soon be affected, putting at risk national industry, tourism and forest-dependent communities. Research into the biological mechanisms causing this forest devastation is urgently needed, so that we can provide useful information to forest management officials in guiding their decisions, improve mitigation strategies, and better prepare for any future forest health threats.

Very little is known about the molecular mechanisms or population structure of the interacting bark beetles, fungi and pine trees. Building on the wealth of knowledge from decades of research into beetle biology and chemical ecology, genomics now offers a means to examine some of the mountain pine beetle system interactions more closely. New information generated at the individual and population levels will be incorporated into ecological risk models to support the improved forest management and mitigation strategies.