Microhabitat selection and characterization of the Woolly Beech Scale, «Cryptococcus fagisuga», in Southern Quebec
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Beech bark disease is a widespread and fatal disease of the American beech, (Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.), initiated by an infestation by the woolly beech scale insect, (Cryptococcus fagisuga Lind.). This infestation is characterized by spatial patterns in the number of beech scale colonies within trees by both aspect and height. I studied these patterns by monitoring differences in microhabitat quality within trees over four months (June-September) at two forests in Montreal, Canada. Spatial patterns in bark temperature, bark resistance to puncture, moisture content, and roughness were compared to patterns in beech scale colonization as determined by colony counts at the start and end of the study. Additionally, stemflow collars were attached to some trees to experimentally determine the effect of stemflow on beech scale colonization patterns. Beech scale colonies were found to be significantly more numerous on the north side of trees, as well as higher up (2.5-2.8 m aboveground) the bole of trees. Seasonal bark temperature was 0.5oC higher at 2.5 m aboveground. Seasonal bark moisture content was significantly higher further up the bole of trees by an average of 3%. The north aspects of tree boles were found to be significantly more resistant to puncture. Diverting stemflow moisture away from the north aspect of trees did not change the bark moisture content, but did cause a significant reduction in scale colonization. The effects of transient stemflow moisture as a source of moisture or as a dispersing agent for beech scale nymphs may explain the higher scale populations on the north side of trees. My results demonstrate that beech scale populations vary spatially with microhabitat quality.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".