Aspen Bibliography
Chapter 11 - Boreal Forests
Document Type
Contribution to Book
Editor
Steven G. McNulty
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Future Forests: Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change
Publisher
Elsevier
First Page
221
Last Page
242
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
Boreal forests are the northernmost forests on the planet, dominated by species of spruce, fir, larch, pine, birch, and aspen, with large tracts of intact primary forest, as well as industrial forests, frequently logged for timber and pulp for paper and packaging products. Natural disturbance regimes include large, high-severity crown fires resulting in even-aged mosaics of pine and birch-aspen forests, and infrequent fires, where gap dynamics caused by insects, windthrow, and disease create uneven-aged conifer forests. Boreal forests grow at high latitudes where large magnitudes of warming are expected. They are subject to multiple mechanisms of change in a warming climate, including the susceptibility of trees to drought and heat stress, increasing insect infestations, increasing frequencies of fires and compound wind and fire disturbances, and more infestations of invasive species. With a high-magnitude warming scenario, changes would include replacing the dominant conifer species with birch and aspen and replacing boreal forests along the southern margin of the biome with temperate forests or grasslands.
Recommended Citation
Frelich, L. E., J. Johnstone, and T. Kuuluvainen. 2024. Boreal forests. Pages 221-242 Future Forests. Elsevier