Bark beetles as lidar targets and prospects of photonic surveillance

Summary, in English

Forestry is raising concern about the outbreaks of European spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus, causing extensive damage to the spruce forest and timber values. Precise monitoring of these beetles is a necessary step towards preventing outbreaks. Current commercial monitoring methods are catch‐based and lack in both temporal and spatial resolution. In this work, light scattering from beetles is characterized, and the feasibility of entomological lidar as a tool for long‐term monitoring of bark beetles is explored. Laboratory optical properties, wing thickness, and wingbeat frequency of bark beetles are reported, and these parameters can infer target identity in lidar data. Lidar results from a Swedish forest with controlled bark beetle release event are presented. The capability of lidar to simultaneously monitor both insects and a pheromone plume mixed with chemical smoke governing the dispersal of many insects is demonstrated. In conclusion, entomological lidar is a promising tool for monitoring bark beetles.

• Author: Meng Li; Samuel Jansson; Anna Runemark; Jonathan Peterson; Carsten Thure Kirkeby; Anna Maria Jönsson; Mikkel Brydegaard
• Department/s: Combustion Physics; Lund Vision Group; Speciation, Adaptation and Coevolution; BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate; Evolutionary ecology; Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science; Animal Navigation Lab
• Publishing year: 2021
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Journal of Biophotonics
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbio.202000420
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
• Topic: Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics; Biophysics
• Status: Published
• Research group: Lund Vision Group; Speciation, Adaptation and Coevolution; Animal Navigation Lab
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1864-063X