How Tree Diversity Regulates Invading Forest Pests
(WorldNews Environment)

A national-scale study of U.S. forests found strong relationships between the diversity of native tree species and the number of nonnative pests that pose economic and ecological threats to the nation`s forests. `Every few years we get a new exotic insect or disease that comes in and is able to do a number on our native forests,` says Kevin Potter, a North Carolina State University research associate professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Sciences and co-author of an article about the research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. `Emerald ash borer is clobbering a number of ash species in the Midwest and increasingly in the South. The chestnut, a magnificent...