Article Tree-Ring Reconstruction of Bark Beetle Disturbances in the Picea schrenkiana Fisch. et Mey. Forests of Southeast Kazakhstan Ann M. Lynch 1,*, Nurjan S. Mukhamadiev 2, Christopher D. O’Connor 3 , Irina P. Panyushkina 4 , Nursagim A. Ashikbaev 2 and Abay O. Sagitov 2 1 U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 1215 E Lowell St., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA 2 Research Institute of Plant Protection and Quarantine, Almaty 050070, Kazakhstan;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +1-520-626-9582 Received: 28 August 2019; Accepted: 12 October 2019; Published: 17 October 2019 Abstract: Ips hauseri Reitter is the most important bark beetle on Picea schrenkiana in southeast Kazakhstan, but its biology, ecology, and outbreak dynamics are poorly known. We dendrochronologically reconstructed a 200-year history of disturbances in the Kazakh Tien Shan P. schrenkiana forests. Only localized, low-severity bark beetle events occurred during the reconstructed period, indicating that extensive high-severity bark beetle outbreaks have not occurred historically in the Tien Shan spruce forest, unlike bark beetle outbreaks in spruce forests in North America, Europe, and Russia. Disturbance frequency doubled after about 1965, probably due to warming climate. Results, combined with the failure of an outbreak to fully develop after blowdown events associated with hurricane-force windstorms in 2011, indicate that prolonged drought may be necessary to sustain I.