A regional integrated assessment of the impacts of climate change and of the potential adaptation avenues for Quebec's forests

Autor: Yan Boulanger, Jesus Pascual Puigdevall, Annie Claude Bélisle, Yves Bergeron, Marie-Hélène Brice, Dominic Cyr, Louis De Grandpré, Daniel Fortin, Sylvie Gauthier, Pierre Grondin, Guillemette Labadie, Mathieu Leblond, Maryse Marchand, Tadeusz B. Splawinski, Martin-Hugues St-Laurent, Evelyne Thiffault, Junior A. Tremblay, Stephen H. Yamasaki
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Canadian Journal of Forest Research.
ISSN: 1208-6037
0045-5067
Popis: Regional analyses assessing the vulnerabilities of forest ecosystems and the forest sector to climate change are key to considering the heterogeneity of climate change impacts as well as the fact that risks, opportunities, and adaptation capacities might differ regionally. Here we provide the Regional Integrated Assessment of climate change on Quebec's forests, a work that involved several research teams and focused on climate change impacts on Quebec's commercial forests and on potential adaptation solutions. Our work showed that climate change will alter several ecological processes within Quebec's forests. These changes will result in important modifications in forest landscapes. Harvest will cumulate with climate change effects to further alter future forest landscapes, which will also have consequences on wildlife habitats (including woodland caribou habitat), avian biodiversity, carbon budget, and a variety of forest landscape values for Indigenous peoples. The adaptation of the forest sector will be crucial to mitigate the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystem goods and services and improve their resilience. Moving forward, a broad range of adaptation measures, notably through reducing harvest levels, should be explored to help strike a balance among social, ecological, and economic values. We conclude that without climate adaptation, strong negative economic and ecological impacts will likely affect Quebec's forests.
Databáze: OpenAIRE