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 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
Forest Health in North America: Some perspectives on Actual and Potential Roles of Climate and Air Pollution
S. McLaughlin,Kevin E. Percy +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of environmental stress on forest growth and nutrient cycles are investigated in several forest types in North America, including southern pine, western pine, high elevation red spruce, and northeastern hardwoods.
Journal ArticleDOI
Updated three-stage model for the peopling of the Americas.
TL;DR: The period of population isolation required for the generation of New World mitochondrial founder haplogroup-defining genetic variants makes the existence of three stages of colonization a logical conclusion.
Journal ArticleDOI
Disease Transfer at Contact
TL;DR: The authors pointed out methodological flaws in anthropological analyses of Native American population magnitudes that ignored the biological reality of old-world contagious diseases during post-Columbian times, and a critical bibliography on Native North American historical demography reemphasized the crucial role of Old World contagious diseases in what
Journal ArticleDOI
Subarctic and subalpine: where and what?
TL;DR: A review of the origin, history, and use of the terms subarctic and subalpine is given in this article, where it is suggested that North American scientists join in the European trend towards a standardization of the nomenclature for latitudinal zones and altitudinal belts.
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