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
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Journal ArticleDOI
Boreal forest health and global change
TL;DR: The boreal forest, one of the largest biomes on Earth, provides ecosystem services that benefit society at levels ranging from local to global, but economic incentives and a greater focus in international fora are needed to support further adaptation and mitigation actions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Anticipating the consequences of climate change for Canada’s boreal forest ecosystems1
TL;DR: The boreal woodlands and forests cover approximately 3.09 × 106 km2 in Canada and are characterized by cool summers and long cold winters as discussed by the authors, and have been warm since the 1850s.
Journal ArticleDOI
Carbon in Canada’s boreal forest — A synthesis1
TL;DR: The authors found that Canada's managed boreal forest, 54% of the nation's total boreal forests area, stores 28 Pg carbon (C) in biomass, dead organic matter, and soil pools.
Journal ArticleDOI
Regional detection, characterization, and attribution of annual forest change from 1984 to 2012 using Landsat-derived time-series metrics
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply spectral trend analysis of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and enhanced thematic mapper plus (ETM+) data from 1984 to 2012 to detect, characterize, and attribute forest changes in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Canopy gap characteristics and tree replacement in the southeastern boreal forest
Daniel Kneeshaw,Yves Bergeron +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify patterns in the gap disturbance regime along a succes- sional gradient in the southern boreal forest and uses this information to investigate canopy composition changes.
Book
Forest fires : behavior and ecological effects
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed an approach for strengthening fire ecology's roots and increasing fire spread in a forest environment, which is based on combining atmospheric and fire models, and demonstrated the effect of wind speed and fuel loading on fire spread.
Book
American Indian holocaust and survival : a population history since 1492
TL;DR: The authors describes how the holocaust had as its causes disease, warfare and genocide, removal and relocation, and destruction of aboriginal ways of life, and discusses in detail how many Indians there were, where they had come from, and how modern scholarship in many disciplines may enable us to make more accurate estimates of aboriginal populations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Canadian boreal forest ecosystem structure and function in a changing climate: impact on fire regimes
M. G. Weber,Mike D. Flannigan +1 more
TL;DR: All indications from the modeling sector point towards unprecedented increased regional or seasonal temperatures, with projected changes most pronounced at high latitudes and there greatest in winter.
Related Papers (5)
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