Boreal Biome

Abstract

The boreal biome, with vast forests across northern North America, Europe, and Asia, has been of interest since the science of ecology got its start in the late 1800s. Many also refer to the boreal forest as “taiga,” and the two terms are considered interchangeable here. Scientists, conservationists, and forest managers have long realized that the difficulty of traveling in the remote territory of the boreal forest offers the chance to characterize the natural ecological function and design effective conservation strategies prior to large-scale exploitation by humans. There are key insights to be gained into ecological theories related to community structure, trophic structure, disturbance ecology, and landscape ecology. Large-scale intact boreal ecosystems allow studies of trophic interactions including top-level predators, landscape dynamics created by natural disturbance, and comparison of natural and human disturbance. Boreal forests reign supreme as places to study large-scale high-severity fires. Essentially, boreal forests have the room to make it possible to carry out studies that cannot be done in the temperate zones, where so much of the landscape has been converted to human usages. These forests also have a large impact on global ecology through interactions with the climate system, carbon storage, and timber resources. The global importance of the boreal forest in the context of global warming has propelled a rapidly growing investment in research during the last few decades.