Global greenhouse to icehouse and back again: The origin and future of the Boreal Forest biome

Abstract

The Boreal Forest biome (Taiga), dominated by evergreen and deciduous coniferous trees (Pinaceae), is circumpolar in its present distribution, covering a significant part of the total land area of the Northern Hemisphere and representing perhaps a third of the total forest area of the planet. Nothing comparable to this extant biome existed during the global “greenhouse” interval of the Late Mesozoic and Paleogene. Latitudinal temperature gradients should have confined boreal taxa to extremely high latitudes, but evergreen taxa do not appear to have been competitive in the lowlands of the high arctic, where the vegetation consisted of a unique circumpolar forest dominated by deciduous conifers and broad-leaved taxa. Probable sources for the pinaceous taxa that now characterize boreal latitudes were the Paleogene evergreen montane coniferous forests of the western North American Cordillera. Taphonomic factors limit the fossil record for such forests, but assemblages such as the Eocene Thunder Mountain (Idaho) and Bull Run (Nevada) floras were dominated by evergreen and deciduous Pinaceae that dominate extant montane, subalpine, and Boreal Forest associations. In response to post-Eocene global cooling, such forests presumably would have migrated to lower elevations, eventually spreading across high-latitude North America, subsequently reaching Eurasia via the Beringian corridor. This high-diversity coniferous forest was differentially winnowed and modified during subsequent migration southward in both the New and Old World. Despite its extensive geographic distribution, the Boreal Forest may be the youngest of the major forest biomes. If global warming ultimately results in a significant redistribution of terrestrial vegetation, the history of the Boreal Forest may well be reversed. Northward migration of the Boreal Forest may be characterized by loss of taxa and extensive community reorganization as individual taxa are pushed to their limits with respect to rates of migration and biotic stress takes its toll in the form of insect predation and disease. If evergreen taxa are unable to survive at low elevations at high polar latitudes, such conifers might once again become restricted to montane refugia and the lowlands of the high arctic would be populated by a larch-dominated deciduous conifer forest of low diversity and limited geographic extent. Given the biogeographic significance of the Boreal Forest biome, such a consequence would represent a profound ecological transformation.