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What are the human impact on the ecosystem
What are the human impact on the ecosystem
What are the human impact on the ecosystem
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The Boreal Shield is Canada’s largest ecosystem, and accounts for around 20% of the country’s total land area. At a total of 1.8 million kilometres squared, it is almost as big as Canada’s largest territory (Nunavut-1.9 million kilometres squared), and stretches from Saskatchewan in the west to Newfoundland and Labrador in the east. The Boreal Shield gets its name from the fact that it is part of the immense Canadian Shield, and that the majority of the surface is covered in Boreal forests. The intersection of these two enormous areas has resulted in the creation of the ecozone that many people think of when they imagine Canada.
Landform Region
The Canadian Shield, of which the Boreal Shield is a major part of, is some of the oldest land
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regions in the world. In this area, you can see exposed bedrock from around 4 billion years ago. In comparison, rock from the Rocky Mountains is a mere 60 million years old. Shield rocks were formed in the very first chapter of the planet's history known as the Precambrian era. Geologists say that the Boreal Shield may once have been home to towering mountains. During the late Precambrian era, violent spasms in the Earth’s crust warped, folded and faulted the Shield. After billions of years of erosion by wind and rain, however, those mountains have been reduced to simple, rolling hills. The foundation of much of the ecozone is now metamorphic gneiss, a rock formed by intense pressure and heat. Many of the minerals found in the Shield have also been said to come from the same period of time that these rocks are from. During the last ice age, which ended only 10 000 years ago, massive glaciers moved across the Shield, before retreating as global temperatures decreased. In their wake, they left countless rivers, lakes, and other water bodies created by the carving out of the rock due to immense boulders that the glaciers were moving along the surface. As the glaciers melted, they filled these cracks and “scars” with water. In the end, the glaciers ended up creating a major system of waterways that still exists to this day, and was vital to the Boreal Shield, and gives it its unique and interesting characteristics. Climate Region The Boreal Shield spans more than halfway across the country, and therefore spans many different climate regions. Summers have roughly the same average temperature throughout the area, about 13C. In the east, along the Atlantic coast, ocean currents give it a milder winter, with a mean temperature of -1C. Meanwhile, the western areas experience tough winters, with average temperatures of -20ºC. Precipitation is just as varied. In the west (Saskatchewan and Manitoba) it is low, about 400mm a year, but it can be a high as 1600mm a year in the east, mainly due to the proximity of those regions to the Atlantic Ocean (Newfoundland). There is just as much variety when it come to northern and southern regions. As you approach the southern Boreal Shield, you get a milder climate, with longer summers and higher average temperatures. This warmer climate allows for the growth of broadleaf trees, which can not grow anywhere else in the Shield except the extreme Southern edge. Soil Region Soil in the Boreal Shield presents a major challenge to any life that might want to live there. Frequent forest fires, cold temperature, and a short growing season make it difficult for plant life to flourish. The soil in the Boreal Shield is very acidic, is grey in colour and has very little humus. Air masses that move in from the Atlantic Ocean contain high amounts of moisture into the region, and a lot of this moisture is absorbed by the soil. THis is not helped by the large amount of water bodies found in the region, which also adds to the overall water found in the soil of the Boreal Shield. Due to the high moisture and abundance of water bodies in this region, the soils are also heavily leached. Vegetation that exists is mostly coniferous trees, which never shed their leaves, resulting in less decomposition of organic matter, resulting in none-to-little amounts of humus in the soil. All of these factors combine to create an extremely thin layer of soil. The soil, due to the fact that it is so moist, becomes soggy and becomes difficult for plants, especially trees, to support their own weight and have their roots secure them in the ground. Despite this, there are vast forests that cover the region. These trees are extremely adaptable and have become used to the difficult conditions posed by the poor soil for them to live in. Vegetation Region It is not easy for plants or trees to thrive in the conditions of the Boreal Shield. A short growing season, cool temperatures, frequent forest fires, acidic soils, and extremely soggy/wet soil make it hard for plants to start growing, and trees be able to get the amount of nutrients and support they need to grow to a large size. Despite all of this, almost 90% of the ecozone is covered in forests of a few extremely highly-adaptable tree species. This includes species such as Black Spruce, White Spruce, Jack Pine, and Balsam Fir. Out of all of these, Black Spruce is the most common, and is used for high-quality wood pulp and is vital to Canada’s paper industry. Towards the southern part of the Shield, there are a few species of broadleaf trees, such as Paper Birch, Trembling Aspen, and Poplar. Forest fires are common in the Boreal Shield, and add to the way that the vegetation grows.
Across the Shield, you can see a ‘mosaic’ of patches of forest that were once burned down, and have younger trees than their neighbours. Although fire often destroys large tracts of forest it also renews the landscape by triggering new growth, killing of bugs, insects, and other pests, and giving both animal and plant life a new habitat, and a fresh start.
Throughout the Boreal Shield, mixed in with the vast forests, are thousand of bogs, marshes, and other wetlands. These wetlands cover the remaining 20% of the land, and are considered by many to be some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in all of Canada.
Animal Life
Despite cool climate, and shortage of variety in plant life, many animals have managed to make the Boreal Shield their home. There is an abundance of waterways in the Boreal Shield, which are home to hundreds of thousands of ducks, loons, geese, and swans. The wetlands are also home to the Beaver, Muskrat, and
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Mink. In the Atlantic regions of the Boreal Shield, you will find the Grey Seal, Harp Seal, the Sperm, Killer, Atlantic Pilot, Fin, Blue, and Humpback whales. You will also find an abundance of fish that are essential to Canada’s fishing economy. Some common species found across the Shield are Lake Trout, Lake Whitefish, Burbot, and Northern Pike. In the vast forests, you can find a variety of bird species, such as the Boreal Owl, the Great Horned Owl, the Evening Grosbeak, and the Blue Jay. You can also find many mammal species in the Boreal Shield.
Some of the more characteristic species include the Woodland Caribou, White-tailed Deer, Moose, Black Bear, Wolf, Lynx, Snowshoe Hare, and Striped Skunk.
Human Activities
The Boreal Shield is vital to the Canadian economy, due to the massive amounts of natural resources that it can provide. Due to the sheer size of the region, we still have an enormous amount of resources yet to exploit, and if we carry out economic practices in a sustainable fashion, there is no reason that the Boreal Shield can not help fuel the Canadian economy for decades to
come. The massive waterways of the Boreal Shield has been extremely useful to the Canadian economy. Since the first arrival of humans to the Boreal Shield after the end of the last Ice Age, we have been able to use the waterways for transportation of goods from one place to another. The massive network of rivers and lakes meant that getting goods and people from one place to another was much more efficient, faster, easier, and safer than making the journey by land would be. The massive fish populations also act as a source of food and trade until this day. Today, many of these rivers and waterways are being used for the creation of vital hydro-electric plants that provide us with the energy that our society needs to function. Some larger wetlands in southern regions of the Boreal Shield have been converted into commercial berry farms, which grow blueberries and blackberries that are sold around the world. Furthermore, the water systems, and the area surrounding them, was home to animals such as beavers and geese, whose fur and feathers were essential to the early Canadian economy, and are still moderately used in high-end products such as down jackets, and fur products. Despite all of this, the majority of the water systems in the Boreal Shield remain untapped, and can be used to provide us drinking water, transportation, and electricity from now into the future. Mining, and forestry is also vital to the regions economic output. Ancient geological upheavals formed the bounty of minerals in the Boreal Shield. Starting in the late nineteenth century, and continuing to the modern day, mining of natural resources inside the Boreal Shield has brought in money for Canada’s economy from all over the world. The mining industry produces gold, silver, copper, nickel, cobalt, and zinc. The output of resources from this region is one of the main factors that keep Canada one of the world’s biggest mineral producer and distributor. The vast forests of Spruce and other trees are used as high-quality wood pulp that is necessary for the production of paper and paper products in Canada. this wood is also used for other products that require “soft” woods . The amount of people that live in the Boreal Shield is actually extremely low. THe population in the entire ecozone is about 3-4 million people, or roughly 10% of Canada’s total population. This is despite the region accounting for 20% of Canada’s overall landmass. THe major reasons for this are the cold temperatures, and the fact that the soil is difficult and expensive to build on. Some of the largest settlements in the Boreal Shield are: Thompson, Manitoba Timmins, Ontario Sudbury,Ontario Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec Val-d'Or, Quebec Baie Verte, Newfoundland
Isle Royal is located fifty-six miles north of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. It is the largest wilderness area in Michigan (USNPS, 2014). The island is surrounded by Lake Superior, which creates a cooler temperature. This results in arctic plant species growth on the island. There are only eighteen mammal species present on the island because most mammals cannot make the trip across the frozen great lake (USNPS, 2014). The need for an ice bridge is not the only environmental factor that is stopping the migration of animals; there is also the severe cold, and also wind and fog (Vucetich, 2012). Some species such as caribou and coyote have found the island to be too intense and have gone extinct (Vucetich, 2012). Due to the harsh weather and isolation of the island, humans have never regularly lived on the island (Vucetich, 2012). Some of species that are present such as the red squirrel are becoming their own subspecies due to its separation from the mainland (USNPS, 2014). The isolation of Isle Royal is what makes it a great place to conduct research, it has very low human interaction and the species that are on the island will have been and continue to be isolated from the mainland.
Canada is a very large country, with areas of land in various climate regions, and land regions, thus having many ecozones that differentiate from another. The most populated ecozone in Canada is the Mixedwood Plains; the ecozone we are located in, named after the mixedwood forests that are native to the area. The Mixedwood Plains is one of the smallest of the Canadian ecozones, spanning only 175 963 kilometres squared. The Mixedwood Plains is bordered by three of the great lakes on the southern side of the ecozone, and comes up along the St Lawrence river to southern Quebec, and fills the tip of Ontario. It has rolling plains and small rock formations and escarpments. The Mixedwood Plains contains over half of the Canadian population as it contains some of Canada’s largest cities, including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Windsor. The Mixedwood Plains has a relatively temperate climate with summers ranging an average temperature of 18o c – 22oc and winters ranging from -3oc - -110c.[2] Native mammals to the ecozone are black, brown and grizzly bears, grey wolves, coyotes and foxes, raccoons, squirrels, and other small mammals. Avian species include brown sparrow, hawks, crows, cardinals and bluejays. Fish are bass, trout, carp and pike. The Mixedwood Plains is made up of about 40% water, and contains over 20% of the worlds freshwater. One of the major problems in the world today is freshwater shortage. Because we have ample supply, we don’t notice, but much of the world is short on water. There are more water resources, but one of the largest is being quickly polluted and populated by invasive species .
The ecozone's forests are composed of 12.8% mixedwood, 2.1% deciduous, and 0.2% coniferous trees. The forest cover spans from 3 to 16%, and 40% of Ontario's rare plants are exclusive to the Carolinian forests. The Wood Poppy, Small-whorled Pogonia, Prickly Pear Cactus, and Cucumber Tree are species listed as Endangered. Wild Raspberry, Black-eyed Susans, Clover, Goldenrod, and Trilliums are widespread in forest ecosystems. Thickets and abandoned fields are h...
Canada's heartland is southern Ontario and Quebec stretching from Quebec City to Windsor. This heartland, occupying the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands, coincides with several favourable physical characteristics such as fertile Class 1 and 2 soils in addition to humid continental climate for optimal agricultural conditions. However, the "hinterland regions display harsher or more limiting physical characteristics. The Cordillera, Interior Plains, Canadian Shield, and Appalachian regions yield tremendous resource wealth, but their soils,
Perhaps the most devastating disregard of the Fraser Valley’s biodiversity was the draining of Sumas Lake to create farmland, resulting in the loss of habitat and the extirpation of endemic species. As it was originally intended to be, the Fraser Valley was a “perhaps unparalleled ecosystem” (Rosenau, p. 55), with bountiful wetlands and remarkable biodiversity. The European settlers 150 years ago considered it to be “wasteland” (Thom, p. 172), certainly uninhabitable and a breeding ground for mosquitoes, so the most logical thing to do would be to drain the body of water once known as Sumas Lake...
The Hudson Plains ecozone, in northern Ontario and parts of Manitoba and Quebec, is an area of wetlands. The climate is generally cool. The northern part of the ecozone is full of shrubs, but no trees, and areas farther south contain forests. Wet have vegetation such as moss and lichen and also some trees like willow, tamarack and black spruce. More northern, drier locations have vegetation consisting of many shrubs such as crowberry and blueberry. In the summer, the wetlands of the Hudson Plains attract millions of migratory birds, such as snow geese, Canada geese and king eider ducks. Mammals which can be found here include moose and black bear, but small mammals such as muskrats and weasels are more common.
The Canadian Shield is a large area made up of mostly precambrian rock and a bit of metamorphic and sedimentary rock. This landform covers most of Canada and a bit of USA. it was originally active volcanoes and mountains, but the volcanoes soon became inactive and climate
Canada ruled the 20th century through science and technology and advanced more than any other country in this time period. Prime Minister Laurier was correct when he stated in his speech “that it is Canada that shall fill the 20th century.” Technology and science were one of the huge factors for Canada being a successful country compare to the world. In technology and science, there were many inventions that were developed in Canada that wowed the world and made Canada feel incredible. Even though war is sad and cruel, the crazy need to survive and the confidence to strive for success has made Canada’s technology and science advance greatly. During the near closing point of the 20th century, Canada’s environment and living is being more advanced and they are thinking about the future generations to come.
Dheeraj Patel Journey Around Canada 2. How do the natural characteristics of Canada influence human activity, and how might human activity influence Canada’s natural characteristics? (B1) In the Central part of Canada there are many different human activities that affect natural characteristics. In the Central part of Canada there are many interior plains landforms.
http://eaglenet.lambuth.edu/facultyweb/science/biology/RCook/community%20ecologyS10.pdf. Impacts on the Biodiversity. Quebec Biodiversity Website -. Web. The Web.
Chapter 2: Canada’s Physical Base emphasizes reasoning for which its physical geography attributes to its regional geography, along with the population distribution and developing core regions. This chapter outlines main geological structure, landforms, climate, and impact on human a...
Woodward, S.L. "Boreal Forest (Taiga)." Biomes of the World. N.p., 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
The tundra artic plains completely covering most of the earth’s lands north of the coniferous forest belt. The tundra’s ecosystem is very sensitive. It doesn’t have a good ability to restore itself. Controlled by sedge, heath, willow, moss, and lichen. Plains that are pretty much alike, called alpine tundra, occur above the timberline in the high mountains of the world. Even the Antarctic area has a couple of its own arctic regions itself.
Humans have been changing the Western forests' fire system since the settlement by the Europeans and now we are experiencing the consequences of those changes. During the summer of 2002, 6.9 million acres of forests was burnt up in the West (Wildland Fires, 1). This figure is two times the ten year annual average, and it does not look like next summer will be any better (Wildfire Season, 1). Foresters have been trying to restore the forests back to their original conditions by thinning and prescribed fires but have encountered countless delays. Politicians are proposing sweeping changes in bills, which have caused great controversy, in efforts to correct the problems that the Forest Service has faced in restoration projects. Are these bills necessary or is there a better solution that politicians are overlooking?
Now, sustainable development and quality of life are crucial to the well being of our nation. Thus, I have pondered many a year on this very important matter and have consulted a very knowing Canadian of my acquaintance at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The amount of natural resources in this country being usually reckoned infi...