Often overlooked in favor of tropical forests. The boreal forests are a wonderful ecosystem.
Hello ecotrain friends, I hope you are doing well. I know that many people who read me and I myself, live in tropical climates, so when we talk about forest projection, it is usually about tropical forests, and with good reason, as they are being destroyed at an alarming rate, but this bias also exists to some extent in the media, so today I will show you some facts about the northern forests, to remember the importance of these, and how wonderful they can be.
1- Boreal forests are also known as Taiga, a Russian word meaning 'land of small branches' because of the profusion of small branches and thorns that the trees leave on the ground.
2- the Taiga is enormous, occupying approximately 17% of the Earth's surface, and almost completely encircles the North Pole. It passes through North America, Europe and parts of Asia. It is the largest ecosystem in existence. Tropical rainforests cover only 7%.
3- Even Japan and Scotland have islands with boreal forests.
4- Despite their enormous extent, boreal forests are composed mainly of 6 types of plants, pine, larch, larch and fir. They make up the vast majority of the trees, among which are some of the tallest trees in the world. Moss and lichens cover much of the ground.
5- canada's boreal forests have the largest wetland region in the world. With more lakes and rivers than anywhere else in the world.
6- strange as it may seem, boreal forests receive about the same amount of rain as deserts, yet they receive moisture from fog and snowfall, and they retain moisture much better thanks to mosses, lichens and permafrost.
7- about permafrost, this phenomenon refers to regions of soil in boreal forests that remain frozen all year round, due to limited biodiversity, and winters, plant matter does not decompose, it accumulates on the ground, when it absorbs moisture and if it freezes, creates capable of soil that can remain frozen all year round.
8- there are two types of taiga, the closed forests, which predominate further south, and tend to be dense, slightly warmer and remain evergreen, and the high boreal forest, such as those found in Siberia and their foliage changes with the seasons, these are much colder.
9- Boreal forests have comparatively low biodiversity, yet they are home to 85 species of mammals, 300 species of birds, 130 species of fish and 32,000 species of insects.
10- despite their low biodiversity, boreal forests are home to some large mammals, such as moose, reindeer and grizzly bears. It makes sense, since a large body helps retain heat better in winter, and the forests, not being so dense, do not affect the mobility of large animals.
11- of the 5 largest land predators, 3 live in boreal forests, the grizzly bear, the black bear, and the Siberian tiger. [The other two are the polar bear and the African lion.]
12- contrary to popular belief, boreal forests are not very old, the truth is that most of the trees in them do not exceed 200 years old, as the forests burn regularly in the summers, this is a normal part of their cycle, as it helps to reduce the amount of undecayed plant matter.
13- the largest forest fire in history occurred in 1987 in the taiga regions between China and the Soviet Union [now Russia] and is known as the Black Dragon fire. It devastated 10,000 square kilometers of boreal forests.
14- despite having warm periods that make fires possible, boreal forests contain some of the coldest winter regions outside the polar circles. Such as Denali in Alaska where temperatures can drop to minus 73 degrees Celsius, and Oymyakon in Siberia, where temperatures of minus 67 degrees Celsius have been recorded.
15- only 3.7 million people worldwide live in boreal forests, but 70% of indigenous communities in northern countries such as Canada live in these forests.
Climate change and conservation.
Boreal forests are very important for the global environmental balance, unfortunately, their survival as that of almost all other ecosystems, is at stake, now some facts related to these topics.
16- Boreal forests absorb almost twice as much carbon as tropical forests per square hectare, recent studies support this fact, with 1.3 billion acres, boreal forests store 208 billion tons of carbon, that is, 11 percent of all carbon released into the atmosphere.
17- boreal forests are a fundamental part of global hydrological cycles, absorbing water from snowfall, filtering it, and then recirculating it back into rivers or the atmosphere through evaporation.
18- Additional factors such as oxygen production, absorption of solar radiation, or prevention of erosion make boreal forests an ecosystem that must be urgently protected.
19- the taiga is threatened by several fronts, one of them, climate change, the taiga is one of the most affected regions, with longer and hotter summers, and winters with less snow, the balance is being lost, insects that feed on the trees are becoming pests as they have more time to reproduce, and more heat means that the normal fire cycle is getting out of control, with more fires than the forest can handle.
20- logging is also a problem, with many of the logging companies. In Canada alone, 1 million hectares of boreal forest are lost each year, much of this logging is crecut, a practice that involves the total deforestation of the area where it is done, including brush and everything else. Although there are experts who support this practice, it has now been shown that it is much more difficult for a forest to recover after this. In Siberia, an alarming 12 million hectares are cleared every year.
21- the clearing of forests and the consequent loss of permafrost not only reduces our planet's ability to absorb carbon, but also releases the carbon contained in the soils, accelerating climate change.
22- the taiga is also being polluted with heavy metals such as nickel or lead, and also with hydrocarbons, since the boreal forest regions of both the americas and Eurasia contain mineral and oil deposits. in canada alone, 41 percent of the boreal forests have been affected in some way by man.
23- hydroelectric projects are also leading to the disappearance of wetlands and preventing moisture from entering some regions of the boreal forests, converting them into grasslands or steppes.
24- only 12% of the boreal forests are protected in some way, either as national parks or indigenous reservations. And 30% are already marked for logging.
25- the FSC [forest stewardship council] is an international organization charged with promoting sustainable logging by preventing clear-cutting and promoting replanting, but recent research has revealed that it is inefficient and apparently corrupt. And in countries like Sweden, only 3 percent of logging operations have been certified as sustainable. It is easy to assume that in the rest of the world the percentage is even lower.
Conclusion.
As we can see my friends, boreal forests are as important a part of the world's ecosystem as any other, and are just as threatened, their conservation and protection is necessary to sustain life on earth. Thank you for reading me. Have a nice evening.
Recommended Bibliographic Reference
[2] GLOBAL SIGNIFICACE OF BOREAL FOREST AND LED CONSERVATION"
[3] SCIENCE"