Some tough questions are being asked about how climate change will impact the Boreal forest.
A comprehensive review of the topic was recently published by 16 Canadian scientists.
Mark Johnston, who works for the Saskatchewan Research Council and was one of the researchers who worked on the paper, says they found a number of general concerns.
One concern deals with the question of how rising volumes of Co2 in the atmosphere will affect trees and overall timber volumes.
Johnston says for areas that have rich soil containing moisture; the effects of climate change might not be so bad.
In fact, he says the Co2 increases may act as a form of fertilization and actually increase timber volumes, something that would be good for the forestry industry.
On the other hand, Johnston says drier areas that contain sandy soil and fewer nutrients would likely not receive these fertilization benefits and drought-like conditions would only increase.
However, he says it will be local conditions that will largely determine what happens.
The researchers also looked at how forest fires may react under climate change.
Johnston says the general conclusion they reached for the western section of the Boreal forest – in northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories – is these areas will experience a rise in fire activity.
“One of the things that I think we’re going to have to do is live with more fire in the environment,” he says.
The researchers also focused on the impacts of insects on trees under climate change.
Johnston says one silver lining is the impact of the mountain pine beetle won’t likely be as devastating in these areas as they have been in B.C.
He says the reason for this is because pine trees are much more dispersed in the Boreal forest as compared to the West coast.
The study also looked at how the southern edge of the Boreal forest will react to climate change.
Johnston says it is expected the forest will contract to the north.
He says foresters will have to pay closer attention to the types of trees that are replanted due to logging or fires.
Johnston adds foresters already do this but explains they will have to be especially focused on matching tree-species to local conditions of soil and topography.
As part of the study, the researchers also visited the scene of an old forest fire that burned near Prince Albert in the 1990’s.
Johnston says that on south-facing slopes that experienced the most intense sunlight, the researchers found a measurable lack of tree-regeneration.
The trees simply could not reproduce due to the hot, dry conditions.
As conditions get warmer and drier, they’ll likely see more trees unable to replenish themselves once they’ve been harvested or burned.
Johnston says adult trees are quite robust and will likely survive but seedlings will be the most vulnerable.
He adds with climate change, the number of severe fire seasons is likely to increase over time.