Invasive Insects in Forest Plantations of Argentina: Ecological Patterns and Implications for Management

Abstract

In the last decades, growing international trade and tourism have significantly increased the rate at which non-native species reach new ecosystems. Plantation forest systems in Argentina are especially exposed to alien insects partly because they are 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, with rising numbers of invasions by nonindigenous forest insects, strong negative economic and ecological impacts on the invaded ecosystems often come along. Notably, the most damaging non-native forest insects found in plantation forestry in Argentina are common to other areas and regions of the Southern Hemisphere, which cultivate similar tree species. By focusing on processes behind described patterns of arrival, establishment, and spread of alien forest insects in commercial forests of Argentina, we explore broad ecological patterns involved in their invasion success and how these may affect strategies of alien pest management.