Effects of Climate Change on the Boreal Forests in Canada
The boreal forest in Canada covers about a third the whole boreal forest in the polar region of the northern hemisphere. There are also other countries covered partly by the boreal forest like Russia and the Nordic and Scandinavian countries such as Norway, Finland and Sweden. In Canada, the boreal region covers about 60% of the land area, from Labrador and Newfoundland to the provinces of Alaska and Yukon. This area is mainly covered by Coniferous forests with a lot of biodiversity (Woynillowicz, et al, 67).
The boreal forests store carbon which controls the rate of global warming caused by human activities. The process is natural through photosynthesis where by the trees and plants absorb carbon from the atmosphere as they grow. The absorption of carbon by the trees and plants in the forest helps in slowing down global warming. This makes the forest to be the largest store of carbon which exceeds other carbon storage areas such as the Amazon. It contains about 22% of all the carbon stored on earth. Carbon is normally store in forests, terrestrial vegetation, soils, lake sediments and peat (Tarnocai, 228).
The ecosystem in the boreal forests is suited for storage of carbon since it holds a huge amount of carbon per unit area than any terrestrial ecosystem. The boreal forest stores twice the amount of carbon stored by the tropical forests, and about three times of carbon stored by temperate forests. This is because the boreal forests are in the cold temperature regions which reduces the rate of decomposition and the wetlands are rich in carbon. The carbon stored in the boreal forest in Canada is about 208 billion tonnes, with about 56% of it stored in peat. The remaining...
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...the improvement in machinery. However, if they were just based on technological improvements, there would not be a continual rise and fall in the logging industry. These periods of increased logging have drastic affects on the environment, today, just like one hundred years ago. More importantly, the growth in technology has led to the reduction of workers. In my opinion, it seems that now we are dealing with the big capitalist pull. Individual companies are buying these forests just to log. For the most part, they are the ones that are reaping the benefits, while destroying habitats for people and animals alike. Thereby changing the relationship of those who work in the industry and that of environmentally conscience society.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), carbon dioxide is the primary gas emitted through human activities and is the most important human contributed greenhouse gas (Overview of greenhouse, 2014). Carbon dioxide is naturally occurring in Earth’s atmosphere. The passing of carbon dioxide through the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and animals is what is known as the carbon cycle. This carbon cycle is important to sustaining life here on Earth. Carbon dioxide is important to life on earth because it is the main component of many biological compounds, minerals, and exists in various forms in the atmosphere (Carbon Cycle, 2014). Humans are disrupting this carbon cycle however by adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and by removing natural absorbers of carbon dioxide, like forests to remove the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is where the greenhouse effect comes into play, since the industrial revolution there has been an increase in the human-related emission of carbon dioxide mainly due to the burning or combustion of fossil fuels for energy. Other contributors include certain industrial processes, the differen...
Named after Boreas, the Greek God of the North Wind, the Boreal Forest Circles the northern globe like an emerald halo. At 1.2 billion acres, Canada’s intact boreal forest stretches from coast to coast and it is the largest intact forest ecosystem remaining on earth (Kurz, Stinson & Rampley, 2008). This unique and protected mosaic of interconnected habitat includes lakes, river valleys, wetlands, peatlands and tundra, at its northern regions (Kurz, Stinson & Rampley, 2008). Its rich soils and permafrost store twice as much carbon per acre as tropical rainforests and are critical in the fight against global warming (Preston, Bhatti, Flanagan & Norris, 2006).
FAO: State of the World's Forests. Rome: Food and Agriculture Office of the United Nations; 2007. Print.
Replantation of trees on marginal crop and pasture lands for the removal of carbon from atmosphere is referred as reforestation. To make this process successful the stored carbon must not return to atmosphere when the tree is burned or when it dies. For this purpose the trees must grow in perpetuity or the wood from them must itself be sequestered, e.g., via bio char, bio-energy with carbon. Short of growth in perpetuity, however, reforestation with long-lived trees (>100 years) will sequester carbon for a more graduated release, minimizing impact during the expected carbon crisis of the 21st century.
Perry, D. A. (1998). The Scientific Basis of Forestry, Annual Review of Ecology and System Thematic 29:435-466, Retrieved July 9, 2005 from: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/policy_and_events/index.cfm
Forests are an invaluable natural resource with multiple conflicting uses. When left to stand, forests help conserve biodiversity, stabilize the environment and control erosion; when logged, they provide building materials, fuel and agricultural land for human use. The challenge is to find an equilibrium between these uses: in other words, to make the transition toward sustainable forestry management.
Forests play a critical role in the carbon cycle on our planet. When forests are cut down, not only does carbon absorption cease, but also the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. If the wood is burned or even if it is left to rot after the deforestation process, this would cause the carbon dioxide to be released too. Cutting down forests will cause a decline in photosynthetic activity. Photosynthesis is the process where plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and converts it to food. Once converted to food, the tree, or plant, will releases oxygen. Having a decline in photosynthetic activity will result in the atmosphere retaining higher levels of carbon dioxide. As carbon dioxide builds up, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect. Small crops, such as corn or plants, draw in small amounts of carbon dioxide and release oxygen, however forests store up to one hundred times more carbon than farmer’s fields that are the same area. When
First of all, what are carbon sinks? The earth contains various natural stocks or reservoirs of carbon. These stocks can be found in the ocean, forests, soils, and the atmosphere. When one of these stocks releases carbon, such as when a forest is reduced by fire, decomposition, or deforestation, it is known as a source of carbon. When these stocks absorb carbon they are called sinks (Sedjo, 4). The ocean can hold the most carbon; it contains about fifty times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Forests and soils contain about 3.5 times as much carbon as the atmosphere (Kolshus, 2). This paper mostly focuses on carbon sinks in forests because it is currently the subject under debate in the climate change regime.
Human activities such as deforestation, industrialization and burning of fossil fuels are the major sources through which carbon dioxide is added...
Canada has many different types of large forest covering its fertile soils, most of the country is the Boreal Forest, which spreads from the Northwest Territories down and over all the way to Newfoundland and Labrador. Other than the Boreal Forest their are the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Forest in southern Ontario, The Acadian Forest that covers most of our New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI. There is the Carolinian Forest in the far southern tip of Ontario close to the border. We have the Subalpine Forest, Columbia Forest, Montane Forest, and Coastal Forest, all crammed over along the west coast of the country by the ocean. Our forest are very valuable to us as a county, because of our large forest we have a huge industry in forestry, and the
Thesis: Forests provide the earth with a regulated climate, strong biodiversity, and good nutrient rich soil for plants to strive on.
The older, larger trees can store much, much more carbon dioxide than a new tree
Carbon dioxide can be captured from the atmosphere and industries via various processes and stored. Carbon sequestration involves a process where carbon is captured and stored in the long term facilitating the deference of global warming. The carbon retrieved can be from the atmosphere where it is deposited in a reservoir, obtained from flue gases such as from power stations or biogeochemical cycling of carbon a natural occurrence between the atmosphere and reservoir. With the rise in modernization all over the world, the industrial sector has spread and expanded to the various continents increasing the amount of emissions. From research, a comparison between pre-industrial and post-industrial global temperatures suggested a rise in carbon