Repeated N.W.T. wildfires can hit boreal forests hard | CBC News
Traditionally among forest experts, fires are often seen as
regenerative — critical periods in an ecosystem that clear away debris
and allow important plants and animals to grow.
regenerative — critical periods in an ecosystem that clear away debris
and allow important plants and animals to grow.
But as climate
change and extreme droughts hit forests, woodlands in northwestern
Canada may wind up burning up more often before that cycle is complete.
That could lead to big changes for the landscape.
In a new paper from from Natural Resources Canada scientists published in the journal Scientific Reports,
scientists found that forests in the boreal region in northern Alberta
and Northwest Territories recovered differently from “short interval
wildfires” — fires that hit a region 10 to 15 years after a fire went
through — than they did from more common forest fires that come much
later to an area, from 30 to well over 100 years after a previous fire.