Invasive insects in plantation forests of South America: ecological patterns and management challenges

CORLEY J.C

Curitiba

Congreso; IUFRO World Congress; 2019

EMBRAPA - IUFRO

In the last decades, growing international trade and tourism have significantly increased the rate at which non-native species reach new ecosystems. Plantation forests systems in South America are especially exposed to alien insects, partly because forestry is dominated by pines and eucalypts which have been introduced to produce timber and pulp, based, among other things, on the benefits related to the lack of native herbivores (i.e., the ?natural enemy release hypothesis?). As noted worldwide, where the invasion by non-indigenous forest insects is also rising, often strong negative economic and ecologic impacts on the invaded ecosystems are reported.  Remarkably, the most damaging non-native forest insects found in plantation forestry  are common to large parts of South America and also to other regions of the Southern Hemisphere.  This could suggest common traits among invasive species and between the invaded systems that may allow us to identify broad ecological patterns behind invasion success. By focusing on several case studies of established alien insects feeding on pines and eucalypts in South America, I look into likely ecological patterns and explore how these affect the main strategies for the management of both, the species already present and, to prevent the establishment of new forest pests.