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
Holarctic genetic structure and range dynamics in the woolly mammoth
Eleftheria Palkopoulou,Eleftheria Palkopoulou,Love Dalén,Love Dalén,Adrian M. Lister,Sergey Vartanyan,Mikhail V. Sablin,Andrei Sher,Veronica Nyström Edmark,Mikael Brandström,Mietje Germonpré,Ian Barnes,Jessica A. Thomas +12 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the mtDNA variation in the woolly mammoth from across its Holarctic range was analyzed to reconstruct its history over the last 200 thousand years (kyr), and the results suggest an expansion into Eurasia from America around 66 kyr BP, coinciding with the first exposure of the Bering Land Bridge during the Late Pleistocene.
Journal ArticleDOI
Périodicité et synchronisme des épidémies de la tordeuse des bourgeons de l'épinette au Québec
TL;DR: A time series analysis was performed on 32 dendrochronological chronologies using Dutilleul's multi frequential periodo gram to estimate the periodicities of spruce budworm outbreaks in the province of Quebec suggesting a migration effect and complex local population dynamics.
Journal ArticleDOI
How do natural disturbances and human activities affect soils and tree nutrition and growth in the Canadian boreal forest? 1
TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of increasing resource extraction and other human activities on the soils and vegetation of the boreal zone was discussed and a review covers published papers between 1974 and 2014.
Journal ArticleDOI
The First Glacial Maximum in North America
TL;DR: It is shown that the cosmic ray–produced nuclides beryllium-10 and aluminum-26 can be used to date tills that overlie paleosols.
Journal ArticleDOI
Comparative study on freezing resistance of conifers with special reference to cold adaptation and its evolutive aspects
TL;DR: The shoot and flower primordia of conifers, except the genus Pinus, survive freezing by extraorgan freezing, and the results are discussed with reference to evolution of cold hardiness of Conifers.
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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