Green oak tortrix, also known as green oak leaf-roller (Tortrix viridana), is a pest that changes the phenological pattern and leaf area index (LAI) of trees in the Zagros vegetation area. We compared changes in LAI changes in control (pest-free) and pest-affected areas of oak forests in Sardasht City of west Azerbaijan province, western Iran. During the developmental stage of the canopy at both study sties (i.e., from April to December 2020), 32 pictures were taken at 15 locations using a fisheye lens camera. Changes in LAI were correlated to changes in temperature, vapor pressure deficit (VPD), precipitation, evaporation, and sunshine hours. Average LAI in the control (1.51) was significantly greater than the pest-affected areas (0.90) (p-value < 0.01). LAI peaked at 1.32 in the pest affected area on 8 June 2020, whereas the peak value of 1.81 was observed 8 days earlier (31 May 2020) in the control area. Apart from rainfall, LAI had a significant, positive correlation with all climatic parameters in both control and pest areas. However, LAI showed a stronger correlation with climatic parameters in the control area (mean r=0.6) compared to the pest-affected areas (mean r=0.4). In both studied areas, temperature had the highest correlation coefficient with LAI (0.7 in the control vs. 0.5 in the pest affected area). The sensitivity of LAI to both green oak tortrix and climatic parameters suggests that the climate change may result in future alterations on oak tree phenology.
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