Despite the importance of wildlife habitat protection in meeting land use management objectives, criteria for habitat identification are surprisingly amorphous. For example, while much current habitat modeling has tended ...

Epiphytes are important components of the forest ecosystem, but the mechanisms that control epiphyte diversity are not clear. Epiphytes are sensitive to disturbance, but their responses to stand-replacing fire are poorly ...

The Alberta oil sands have caused an economic boom in the Canadian economy in recent years. Identifying the best strategy for vegetation recovery after oil sands extraction is critical to restoring the biodiversity and ...

In the boreal forest, understory vegetation accounts for the majority of floristic diversity and affects overstory succession and productivity, nutrient cycling, and wildlife habitat. In riparian forests, understory ...

Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) populations throughout much of the boreal forest have decreased as a result of changes to forest composition, including an increase in moose (Alces alces) and wolf (Canis lupus) ...

Wood density variation affects structural timber performance and is correlated with different sources (genetic diversity, stand dynamics and climatic effects) which, to date, have not been comprehensively quantified in ...

The boreal forest is home to a thriving forest industry which requires stable, long term timber to remain viable. Anthropogenic climate change, caused by the release of greenhouse gasses, is occurring rapidly in northern ...

Changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) and temperature may influence nutrient resources and how boreal species respond to their environment. The effects of increased [CO2] on plants are generally positive but can ...

Tree mortality influences forest structure, composition and ecosystem functions. To assess how recent climate changes affected tree mortality, observational studies conducted in old-growth forests have shown that tree ...

Nutrient resorption (NuR) prior to developmental senescence allows for nutrient conservation in plants, driven primarily by genetics, development stage, climate and soil fertility, and litterfall is the vector for the ...