The biome chosen from the infographic provided is the “Boreal Forrest Biome” with an example ecosystem of Canadian Taiga. Taiga referred to as a snow forest or a Boreal Forest that is in the Canadian region is a biome characterized by coniferous forests or cone-bearing needle-leaved forests. The boreal zone of Canada is a very large bio-region that is composed primarily of vegetation and the particular mixtures of various plant species over 1000 kilometres in width that ring the Northern Hemisphere. The expansive forests of this biome start just below the Arctic Circle forming a ring around the majority of the world’s northern latitudes and are filled with centuries-old birches and an abundance of wildlife including wolves, wood frogs, and loons. This biome is characterized by moderate to high annual precipitation that is composed of vegetation consisting primarily of spruces, birches, cones, pines, and larches.
The ecosystem of Canadian Boreal Forest’s vast untouched region provides refuge to a keystone prey species, snowshoe hares. It is one of the commonest species that can be found in forests across most of Canada. This hare species is given the name “snowshoe” because of their large hind feet which allow them to stay on top of the snow during the coldest Canadian winters. This species serves as food for the threatened Canada Lynx for more than 80% of its winter diet because Lynx species rely majorly on snowshoe hares. They are also an important prey source for a variety of other predators as mammalian and avian predators are closely tied with snowshoe hare abundance in the Canadian Taiga (Higdon, 2002). The keystone species of snowshoe hares are important for the Canadian Boreal Forest Biome because their presence assists in the maintenance of forest composition and high species diversity in the carnivore or predator community.
Invasive species in Boreal Canada are ringing the alarms for climate scientists and the Earth that the region that is known for holding enough carbon would become the one releasing more carbon in no time. In boreal forests on the landscape of Canada, earthworms are the invasive species that are arriving from Southern Europe and are altering the plant types in Canadian Boreal. Moreover, they have the ability to alter soil properties as they are famously called “ecosystem engineers” which can potentially change the nutrient cycle and can affect native plants and vegetation diversity. Earthworms, the exotic species in the Canadian Taiga appear to be the most prevalent biota present in the boreal forests. It is reported that they are 500 times greater than that of moose found in Alaska’s Boreal Forest in their biomass. Their presence in the boreal raises concerns about climate change because when the earthworms feed, they release much of the carbon that is stored in the Canadian Taiga’s forest floor (Sanderson et al., 2012). Canada National Parks Act aims to protect the vegetation, fight climate change risks, and take steps to mitigate the negative impacts that worms pose to native plant species.
In Canadian Boreal, the woodland caribou species was once abundant but industrial logging pushed this species to the verge of extinction. The causes of this species being at risk are the things like hunting, cutting of wood, pipelines, and unsustainable extractive industries activities in the region. Moreover, the construction of roads, agricultural spread, mining, and human disturbance have further contributed to the caribou’s habitat destruction in boreal Canada. The fragmentation of woodland caribou’s habitat has also posed different threats to the species including depression due to inbreeding and unavailability of food during extremely cold winter days (McLoughlin et al., 2003). To cope with the problem of caribou’s extinction, Canada has committed to protecting at-risk species under the Species at Risk Act which is federally protected under the Canada National Parks Act to restore habitats, protect ecosystems, and fight climate change so that endangered species can be protected.
References
Higdon, J. (2002). Functionally dominant herbivores as keystone species. Conservation Ecology, 6(2).
McLoughlin, P. D., Dzus, E., Wynes, B. O. B., & Boutin, S. (2003). Declines in populations of woodland caribou. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 755–761.
Sanderson, L. A., McLaughlin, J. A., & Antunes, P. M. (2012). The last great forest: A review of the status of invasive species in the North American boreal forest. Forestry, 85(3), 329–340.
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