An introduction to Canada’s boreal zone: ecosystem processes, health, sustainability, and environmental issues

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 207-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.P. Brandt ◽  
M.D. Flannigan ◽  
D.G. Maynard ◽  
I.D. Thompson ◽  
W.J.A. Volney
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Timber Harvest ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
The Past

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.

scholarly journals Jahrringforschung und Klimawandel in den borealen Wäldern | Annual ring research and climate change in boreal forests

2002 ◽  
Vol 153 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fritz H. Schweingruber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Annual Ring ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Ring Network ◽  
The Past ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Northern Hemispheric

For a climatological interpretation of annual-ring sequences we used the northern hemispheric tree-ring network collected by the WSL for the boreal zone and subalpine areas. Ring width and maximum densities point to climatological events of short duration triggered by volcanic eruptions, as well as decennial and centennial changes of summer temperatures over the past 8000 years. The current warm period roughly corresponds to that which occurred around AD 1000.

scholarly journals Effects of Infectious Diseases on Population Dynamics of Marine Organisms in Chesapeake Bay

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerelle A. Jesse ◽  
M. Victoria Agnew ◽  
Kohma Arai ◽  
C. Taylor Armstrong ◽  
Shannon M. Hood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Chesapeake Bay ◽  
Eastern Oyster ◽  
Marine Organisms ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Pathogen Dynamics ◽  
Growth And Reproduction

AbstractDiseases are important drivers of population and ecosystem dynamics. This review synthesizes the effects of infectious diseases on the population dynamics of nine species of marine organisms in the Chesapeake Bay. Diseases generally caused increases in mortality and decreases in growth and reproduction. Effects of diseases on eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) appear to be low in the 2000s compared to effects in the 1980s–1990s. However, the effects of disease were not well monitored for most of the diseases in marine organisms of the Chesapeake Bay, and few studies considered effects on growth and reproduction. Climate change and other anthropogenic effects are expected to alter host-pathogen dynamics, with diseases of some species expected to worsen under predicted future conditions (e.g., increased temperature). Additional study of disease prevalence, drivers of disease, and effects on population dynamics could improve fisheries management and forecasting of climate change effects on marine organisms in the Chesapeake Bay.

scholarly journals A Classification of Landuse using time series analysis of Kota Tinggi District ,Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-63
Author(s):  
Alhaji Mustapha Isa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Thematic Mapper ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
The Past ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
Ground Truthing ◽  
Confusion Matrices

Deforestation and climate change have become global environmental issues. The detection of forest changes in association with climate change can be successfully carried out by the use of multi-temporal remote sensing and modelling. This study undertook analysis of the past and present condition of the forest from the pattern changes of the Kota tinggi district johor state Malaysia, using landsat images of three different periods. These are thematic mapper (TM) data of 1998; enhanced thematic mapper (ETM+) image of 2008 and the operation land imager (OLI) of 2018 were collectively used. The images were geometrically and atmospherically pre-processed then classified, using maximum likelihood (M/C) algorithm to produce thematic land use/cover maps of the district. The accuracy of the classification was assessed through ground truthing and confusion matrices which revealed an accuracy of above 90% and kappa coefficient at 0.9 respectively.

scholarly journals Forest carbon allocation modelling under climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 1937-1960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarína Merganičová ◽  
Ján Merganič ◽  
Aleksi Lehtonen ◽  
Giorgio Vacchiano ◽  
Maša Zorana Ostrogović Sever ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Carbon Allocation ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Nonstructural Carbohydrates ◽  
The Past ◽  
Process Understanding ◽  
Vegetation Models ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Carbon allocation plays a key role in ecosystem dynamics and plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Hence, proper description of this process in vegetation models is crucial for the simulations of the impact of climate change on carbon cycling in forests. Here we review how carbon allocation modelling is currently implemented in 31 contrasting models to identify the main gaps compared with our theoretical and empirical understanding of carbon allocation. A hybrid approach based on combining several principles and/or types of carbon allocation modelling prevailed in the examined models, while physiologically more sophisticated approaches were used less often than empirical ones. The analysis revealed that, although the number of carbon allocation studies over the past 10 years has substantially increased, some background processes are still insufficiently understood and some issues in models are frequently poorly represented, oversimplified or even omitted. Hence, current challenges for carbon allocation modelling in forest ecosystems are (i) to overcome remaining limits in process understanding, particularly regarding the impact of disturbances on carbon allocation, accumulation and utilization of nonstructural carbohydrates, and carbon use by symbionts, and (ii) to implement existing knowledge of carbon allocation into defence, regeneration and improved resource uptake in order to better account for changing environmental conditions.

scholarly journals Protected areas in boreal Canada: a baseline and considerations for the continued development of a representative and effective reserve network

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret E. Andrew ◽  
Michael A. Wulder ◽  
Jeffrey A. Cardille
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Natural Disturbance ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Disturbance Regimes ◽  
Management Interventions

Boreal forests maintain regionally important biodiversity and globally important ecosystem services, such as carbon storage and freshwater resources. Many boreal systems have limited anthropogenic disturbances and are preserved, in effect, to date largely by their harsh climates and remoteness. As of 2011, almost 10% of Canada is subject to some manner of formal protection, with 4.5% of this protected area found within the boreal zone. The management of existing parks and protected areas (PPAs) is shared amongst many federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions. Although there are currently low levels of anthropogenic development in some portions of the boreal zone (especially the north), if expansion of protected areas is of interest, there are challenges to traditional PPA networks that may be more prominent in the boreal zone than elsewhere: (1) the boreal zone is home to charismatic mammal species with area requirements much larger than typical PPAs; (2) the boreal zone is characterized by natural disturbance regimes that impact large areas; and (3) projected changes to climate for the boreal zone are among the greatest in the world, creating temporal considerations for conservation planning exercises. There is currently no PPA assessment specific to boreal Canada. To address this lack of an assessment, we developed a conservation gap analysis of the current PPA system with respect to a variety of environmental surrogates (ecozones, land cover, vegetation productivity, and landscape structure). The amount of formally protected land varied within each surrogate, with few commonly reported features meeting national or international conservation targets. Furthermore, few reserves met the areal requirements that have been previously recommended to protect large mammals or accommodate the disturbance regimes present. We also discuss considerations and implications of area-based versus value-based protection objectives. While recognizing that there are still scientific challenges around understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of PPAs, based upon our review and assessment, the following considerations should inform conservation options for the boreal zone: (1) representation of the distribution of natural features within the PPA network; (2) effective maintenance of habitat requirements and spatial resilience to both cyclical and directional changes in spatial patterns through large, connected reserves; and (3) implementation of sustainable forest management practices (where applicable) throughout the broader landscape, as traditional on-reserve protection is unlikely to be sufficient to meet conservation goals. The Canadian boreal is unique in possessing large tracts of inaccessible forested lands that are not subject to management interventions, thereby offering functions similar to protected lands. The question of how to more formally integrate these lands into the existing PPA network requires further consideration. Further, the important temporal role of landscape dynamics in designing an effective PPA needs to be further studied as well as development of a better understanding of design needs in the context of a changing climate.

scholarly journals Climate change impacts on plant diseases

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanmoy Das ◽  
M. Hajong D Majumdar ◽  
RK Tombisana Devi ◽  
T Rajesh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Plant Diseases ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Adaptive Potential ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Pathogen Populations

The change in Global climate is due to increasing concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The earths’ observed climatic changes over the past 50 years are primarily caused by various human activities. The increasing global temperature over the past century by about 0.8°C and expected to rise between 0.9 and 3.5°C by 2100. Such changes will not only have a great effect on the growth and cultivation of different crops but also affect the reproduction, spread and severity of many plant pathogens. Various plant disease models have been developed to incorporate more sophisticated climate predictions at various levels. At the level, the adaptive potential of plant and pathogen populations may prove to be one of the most important predictors of the magnitude of climate change effects. This review highlights various influences of climate change on plant diseases and their effects with suitable examples.SAARC J. Agri., 14(2): 200-209 (2016)

Central European vegetation and climate dynamics during the past 130 ka at Füramoos, SW Germany

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Kern ◽  
Frederik Allstädt ◽  
Andreas Koutsodendris ◽  
Bertil Mächtle ◽  
Gerd Schukraft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Pollen Record ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Central European ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Mis 5E ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Last Glacial

<p>To better understand the response of Central European vegetation to rapid climate change during the late Quaternary, we have revisited the Füramoos peat bog in southwestern Germany. Located between two moraine ridges of Rissian age and comprising a near-complete sedimentary sequence from late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 to 1, this peat bog represents the longest continuous pollen record from the last glacial-interglacial cycle north of the Alps. The Füramoos site has been in the focus of several palynological studies in the past, showing that it presents an excellent archive to study the impact of Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events on the Central European ecosystems (e.g., Müller et al., 2003). However, these previous studies were only of limited temporal resolution, which has yet precluded detailed insight into the ecosystem response to short-term climate change. We present a new, highly resolved pollen record (temporal resolution: 80–200 yrs) and XRF core scanning data from Füramoos spanning the past ~130 ka based on two new drill cores that consist of peat and lake sediments (Kern et al., 2019).</p><p>Our results show that closed temperate forests thrived at Füramoos during full interglacials characterized by <em>Alnus</em>, <em>Corylus</em>, <em>Quercus</em>, and <em>Ulmus</em>. The major difference between the past two interglacials is that <em>Fagus</em> dominates during MIS 1 whereas it is mostly absent during MIS 5e. During MIS 5, the vegetation evolved from closed temperate (MIS 5e) to boreal forests (dominated by <em>Betula</em>, <em>Picea</em>, and <em>Pinus</em>; MIS 5d–5a). The youngest part of the last interglacial (MIS 5d–5a) is marked by six distinct forests contractions (decreases in arboreal pollen by ~30–50%) before the establishment of a steppe vegetation that prevailed throughout the Last Glacial (MIS 2–4). In addition, seven transient increases in tree-pollen percentages document the expansion of boreal forests during MIS 2–4; they are associated with synchronous increases of Si, Ti, K and Fe contents as evidenced in XRF data.</p><p>We attribute the forest contractions during MIS 5d–5a to the cooling events C19–C24 known from marine records in the North Atlantic and terrestrial records from southern Europe. Moreover, the forest expansions during MIS 2–4 are associated with warm and moist conditions occurring during D-O events 7–12, and 14. In contrast, D-O events 13 and 15–19 don’t leave an imprint on the vegetation although their presence is clearly documented in the XRF data. Our findings emphasize that the sediments from Füramoos are exceptionally well suited to reconstruct ecosystem dynamics in Central Europe yielding unprecedented insight into the vegetation response to short-term climatic forcing north of the Alps during the past 130 kyrs.</p><p> </p><p>Müller, U.C., Pross, J., Bibus, E., 2003. Vegetation response to rapid climate change in Central Europe during the past 140,000 yr based on evidence from the Füramoos pollen record. <em>Quaternary Research</em> 59, 235–245.</p><p>Kern, O.A., Koutsodendris, A., Mächtle, B., et al., 2019. X-ray fluorescence core scanning yields reliable semiquantitative data on the elemental composition of peat and organic-rich lake sediments. <em>Science of the Total Environment</em> 697, 134110.</p>

scholarly journals Do Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) prevailing over native species with climate change effects?

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Castro ◽  
João Canning-Clode ◽  
Patrício Ramalhosa ◽  
Eva Cacabelos ◽  
José Lino Costa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Native Species ◽  
Indigenous Species ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Non Indigenous Species

Projected climate change effects on Alberta's boreal forests imply future challenges for oil sands reclamation

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hedvig K. Nenzén ◽  
David T. Price ◽  
Yan Boulanger ◽  
Anthony R. Taylor ◽  
Dominic Cyr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Oil Sands Reclamation

Spatial Redistribution of U.S. Tornado Activity between 1954 and 2013

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1681-1697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Agee ◽  
Jennifer Larson ◽  
Samuel Childs ◽  
Alexandra Marmo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Meteorological Parameters ◽  
Temporal Change ◽  
Preliminary Investigation ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Central Plains ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spatial Redistribution ◽  
Seasonal Analysis

AbstractClimate change over the past several decades prompted this preliminary investigation into the possible effects of global warming on the climatological behavior of U.S. tornadoes for the domain bounded by 30°–50°N and 80°–105°W. On the basis of a warming trend over the past 30 years, the modern tornado record can be divided into a cold “Period I” from 1954 to 1983 and a subsequent 30-year warm “Period II” from 1984 to 2013. Tornado counts and days for (E)F1–(E)F5, significant, and the most violent tornadoes across a 2.5° × 2.5° gridded domain indicate a general decrease in tornado activity from Period I to Period II concentrated in Texas/Oklahoma and increases concentrated in Tennessee/Alabama. These changes show a new geographical distribution of tornado activity for Period II when compared with Period I. Statistical analysis that is based on field significance testing and the bootstrapping method provides proof for the observed decrease in annual tornado activity in the traditional “Tornado Alley” and the emergence of a new maximum center of tornado activity. Seasonal analyses of both counts and days for tornadoes and significant tornadoes show similar results in the spring, summer, and winter seasons, with a substantial decrease in the central plains during summer. The autumn season displays substantial increases in both tornado counts and significant-tornado counts in the region stretching from Mississippi into Indiana. Similar results are found from the seasonal analysis of both tornado days and significant-tornado days. This temporal change of spatial patterns in tornado activity for successive cold and warm periods may be suggestive of climate change effects yet warrants the climatological study of meteorological parameters responsible for tornado formation.

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