TITLE:
Assessment and Monitoring Damage by Coraebus florentinus (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Mediterranean Oak Forests
AUTHORS:
Ana M. Cárdenas, Patricia Gallardo
KEYWORDS:
Buprestidae, Coleoptera, Coraebus florentinus, Damage, Mediterranean, Monitoring, Oak Forests
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.8 No.5,
May
28,
2018
ABSTRACT: Coraebus florentinus (Herbst) is a wood borer
beetle that damages the most abundant Quercus species making up the Mediterranean forests. Damage is due to the feeding
activity of the larvae which cuts the sap flow into the
branch where it develops, drying it. In the last decades, the geographical
range and the damage records of this species have expanded northwardly as a result of the climate global change since warmer conditions favor higher
reproduction and quicker development of this species. On this paper, historical
series of data after ten years evaluating damages by C. florentinus in Hornachuelos Natural Park (Southern Spain) are
analyzed under the perspective of the environmental temperature increase linked
to the global climate change. The assessment was done between 2007 and 2017, in
two sampling plots of Mediterranean mixed-oak forests where holm and cork oaks
are the predominant tree species. Results show that the infestation levels of
this species at the beginning of the assessment period were higher than those
described previously in the nineties and that they increased progressively during the monitoring time.
The results also agree with the expansion of its distribution areas noticed in
other areas of Europe. The foreseeable rising of damages of C. florentinus is discussed, at greater
scale, under the perspective of future scenery of environmental warming and
oaks decaying by losing fitness due to higher soil aridity.