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
Boreal Shield Forest Disturbance and Recovery Trends using Landsat Time Series
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors developed and applied a methodology for using Landsat time series to characterize forest recovery using spectral recovery trajectories, focusing on the Canadian Boreal Shield ecozone where a known geographic east to west distinction in disturbance regimes remains to be quantified.
Journal ArticleDOI
Wildland fire risk research in Canada
Lynn M. Johnston,Xianli Wang,Sandy Erni,Stephen W. Taylor,Colin B. McFayden,Jacqueline A. Oliver,Jacqueline A. Oliver,Christopher A. Stockdale,Amy Christianson,Yan Boulanger,Sylvie Gauthier,Dominique Arseneault,B. Mike Wotton,B. Mike Wotton,Marc-André Parisien,Mike D. Flannigan +15 more
TL;DR: Despite increasing concern about wildland fire risk in Canada, there is little synthesis of knowledge that could contribute to the development of a comprehensive risk framework for a wide range of....
Journal ArticleDOI
Decadal soil and stand response to fire, harvest, and salvage-logging disturbances in the western boreal mixedwood forest of Alberta, Canada1
TL;DR: In this article, soil, foliar nutrition, and regeneration growth response to wildfire, clearcut harvesting, and postfire salvage logging, as well as undisturbed control stands within the first year following disturbance and 10-11 years after disturbance in trembling aspen mixedwood forests near Lesser Slave Lake, north-central Alberta, Canada.
Journal ArticleDOI
Incorporating uncertainty into forest management planning: Timber harvest, wildfire and climate change in the boreal forest
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a new approach for incorporating uncertainty into forest management planning, which they demonstrate using two landscapes in the Canadian boreal forest, and demonstrate that there is an increased risk of shortfalls in timber harvest associated with future projections for changes in wildfire due to climate change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Impacts and prognosis of natural resource development on aquatic biodiversity in Canada's boreal zone 1
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the recent state of knowledge on the responses of aquatic biodiversity to forest management, pulp and paper mill effluents, hydroelectric impoundments, mining of minerals and metals, oil sands extractions, and peat mining and offered a prognosis for aquatic biodiversity under each of these environmental stressors.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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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