Journal ArticleDOI
An introduction to Canada’s boreal zone: ecosystem processes, health, sustainability, and environmental issues
TLDR
The region presently occupied by Canada's boreal zone has experienced dramatic changes during the past 3 million years as the climate cooled and repeated glaciations affected both the biota and the landscape as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
The boreal zone and its ecosystems provide numerous provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Because of its resources and its hydroelectric potential, Canada’s boreal zone is important to the country’s resource-based economy. The region presently occupied by Canada’s boreal zone has experienced dramatic changes during the past 3 million years as the climate cooled and repeated glaciations affected both the biota and the landscape. For about the past 7000 years, climate, fire, insects, diseases, and their interactions have been the most important natural drivers of boreal ecosystem dynamics, including rejuvenation, biogeochemical cycling, maintenance of productivity, and landscape variability. Layered upon natural drivers are changes increasingly caused by people and development and those related to human-caused climate change. Effects of these agents vary spatially and temporally, and, as global population increases, the demands and impacts on ecosystems will likely increase. Understanding how humans directly affect terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Canada’s boreal zone and how these effects and actions interact with natural disturbance agents is a prerequisite for informed and adaptive decisions about management of natural resources, while maintaining the economy and environment upon which humans depend. This paper reports on the genesis and present condition of the boreal zone and its ecosystems and sets the context for a detailed scientific investigation in subsequent papers published in this journal on several key aspects: carbon in boreal forests; climate change consequences, adaptation, and mitigation; nutrient and elemental cycling; protected areas; status, impacts, and risks of non-native species; factors affecting sustainable timber harvest levels; terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity; and water and wetland resources.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Pelagic food webs of humic lakes show low short-term response to forest harvesting.
Anne Deininger,Anne Deininger,Anne Deininger,Anders Jonsson,Jan Karlsson,Ann-Kristin Bergström +5 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that pelagic food webs of humic lakes (DOC > 15 mg/L) might be resilient to a moderate form of forest clear-cutting, at least two years after tree removal, before mechanical site preparation and when leaving buffer strips along lakes and incoming streams.
Journal ArticleDOI
Uncovering regional variability in disturbance trends between parks and greater park ecosystems across Canada (1985-2015)
Douglas K. Bolton,Nicholas C. Coops,Txomin Hermosilla,Michael A. Wulder,Joanne C. White,Colin J. Ferster +5 more
TL;DR: Analyzing three decades of stand-replacing disturbance derived from Landsat time series data finds that disturbance rates in GPEs were significantly higher than in corresponding PPAs in southern managed forests (six of Canada’s 12 forested ecozones).
Journal ArticleDOI
Scientific considerations and challenges for addressing cumulative effects in forest landscapes in Canada
TL;DR: In this article, the integration of all natural resources in forest management is discussed, and the authors highlight the importance of forest management in other industries as well as the benefits of integrating them.
Journal ArticleDOI
Differential habitat selection in boreal songbirds influences estimates of population size and distribution
Andrew Crosby,Erin M. Bayne,Steven G. Cumming,Steven G. Cumming,Fiona K. A. Schmiegelow,Francisco V. Dénes,Junior A. Tremblay +6 more
TL;DR: The goal was to test for and quantify differential habitat selection in songbirds among regions of the Canadian boreal forest.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assessing the trade-offs between timber supply and wildlife protection goals in boreal landscapes
Denys Yemshanov,Robert G. Haight,Ning Liu,Marc-André Parisien,Quinn E. Barber,Frank H. Koch,Cole Burton,Nicolas Mansuy,Fabio Campioni,Salimur Choudhury +9 more
TL;DR: In Canada, protecting threatened woodland caribou within areas of resource extraction often involves reducing habitat fragmentation; see as discussed by the authors for an overview of Canada's efforts to protect wildlife within resource extraction.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Life on Earth
Journal ArticleDOI
Biotic invasions: causes, epidemiology, global consequences, and control
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Related Papers (5)
Anticipating the consequences of climate change for Canada’s boreal forest ecosystems1
A Large and Persistent Carbon Sink in the World’s Forests
Yude Pan,Richard Birdsey,Jingyun Fang,Jingyun Fang,Richard A. Houghton,Pekka E. Kauppi,Werner A. Kurz,Oliver L. Phillips,Anatoly Shvidenko,Simon L. Lewis,Josep G. Canadell,Philippe Ciais,Robert B. Jackson,Stephen W. Pacala,A. David McGuire,Shilong Piao,Aapo Rautiainen,Stephen Sitch,Daniel J. Hayes +18 more