The impact of the forest is so significant that global levels of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, actually drop slightly in spring and summer when it is growing most. It covers roughly one-tenth of the Earth’s landmass - including about three million square kilometres in Canada - making it a big carbon sponge. The boreal forest has a huge impact on these numbers due to its size. By extension, it also shapes the composition of the atmosphere, which today includes concentrations of oxygen, at about 21 per cent, and carbon dioxide, at roughly 0.04 per cent. Like Earth’s other grand forests, the boreal plays a critical role in how the planet breathes through the process of photosynthesis. The boreal forest covers roughly one-tenth of the Earth’s landmass. ![]() The reason? A recent article in Science notes that the boreal forest is changing at “unprecedented” speed and amplitude, posing a “substantial threat” to its future. ![]() ![]() Today, however, this vast semi-circular fringe across the top of the globe is the subject of intense study as climate-change scientists parse its role in regulating the Earth’s atmosphere.Īnd that role is shifting. The cold, needle-leaved antithesis to the fervid exuberance of tropical rainforests. The boreal forest has occasionally been dubbed “the ugly forest.”
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