Notebook

You are expected to keep a notebook of your work that you may have to present to your instructor at the completion of the course. The notebook should contain all homework assignments and any other information relevant to the course. Writing in the notebook should be done neatly by hand and drawings should be used whenever possible to illustrate your work. Notebooks will be graded according to completeness, neatness and general overall quality. Your notebook will reflect the amount of time and care you have put into this course.

1. Read Chapter 3, Insects in the Forest Environment, of your textbook Forest Insects: Principles and Practice of Population Management and make notes and drawings in your notebook.
2. Go through Session 1 on the Internet and make notes in your notebook.

Questions

Questions similar to those below may appear on the first examination. You can practice your knowledge of this session by answering these questions and checking the answers against the information in the reading or Internet.

1. What is a constitutive defense mechanism?
2. What kinds of physical defenses do plants have against insects?
3. What are the two major groups of chemicals used by plants to defend themselves against insect attack?
4. What are juvenile hormone mimics and how do they work?
5. What kinds of trees have good preformed defenses?
6. What kinds of defensive cells and structures are found in the phloem of conifers?
7. What kinds of defensive cells and structures are found in the xylem of conifers?
8. What is an induced defense mechanism?
9. How does the hypersensitive reaction of conifers work?
10. What is an elicitor?
11. Give two examples of elicitors?
12. What is acquired resistance?
13. Give an example of acquired resistance.
14. What is systemic acquired resistance?
15. Why are introduced pathogens so dangerous to American tree species?
16. List 5 examples of introduced pathogens that are threatening American tree species.
17. Why are stressed trees more susceptible to insect attack?
18. What factors can cause stress in forest trees?
19. How can insects turn the defenses of the tree against the tree?
20. Why are insects less likely to evolve counter-adaptations against induced defenses?
21. What does stability mean?
22. What is a stable system?
23. What is an unstable system?
24. What is a feedback loop?
25. What causes positive feedback?
26. What does +feedback do to the dynamics of a system?
27. What is negative feedback?
28. What does feedback do to the dynamics of a system?
29. What is the pine wilt disease and how is it transmitted?
30. Why is the pine-wilt disease wiping out Japanese pines?
31. Why do interactions between trees and native insects usually result in stabilizing feedback?
32. How do external factors affect the stability of forest ecosystems?
33. What causes insect populations to cycle around their equilibrium levels?
34. What is an aggregating pheromone?
35. What is an aggressive bark beetle?
36. What are serotinous cones?
37. How are unstable +feedback loops created in bark beetle-forest interactions?
38. What is a food web?
39. What is the dynamic consequence of competition between two species?
40. What is the dynamic consequence of predation by one species on another?
41. How can insects increase the stability of forest ecosystems?
42. What is the difference between a pioneer and a climax species of tree?
43. What is meant by the term forest succession?
44. How can insects speed up forest succession?
45. How can insects slow down succession?
46. How do insects regulate the productivity of forest ecosystems?
47. How does the natural regulation of forest productivity conflict with human goals?
48. How should forest managers fit into this natural scheme?
49. What kind of insects are involved in pollenating forest trees?
50. What kind of insects are involved in recycling dead plant materials?

E-mail your instructor to let him know that you have finished this session: berryman@mail.wsu.edu

<Use BACK key to return to Sessions>