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White spruce taiga in the Alaska
Taiga or Boreal Forest Land Coverage
Siberian Taiga
World's Largest Land Biome Covers About 11.5% of the Earth's Land Area.
The circumboreal belt of forest represents about 25% of the global forest area, contains more surface freshwater than any other biome, and has large tracts of unmanaged forests across the high-latitude regions of Canada, Russia, and the United States. From a biological perspective, boreal forests are defined as forests growing in high-latitude environments where freezing temperatures occur for 6 to 8 months and in which trees are capable of reaching a minimum height of 5m and a canopy cover of 10%.
Along the northern edges of North America, Europe, and Asia—ringing the Arctic Circle—lies an expanse of forest almost unchanged since the end of the last ice age. Extending from 45° to 65° North, these forests are known as the boreal forest in North America, and the taiga in Europe and Asia. Trees such as spruce, pine, aspen, and birch dominate the landscape (which is often covered in snow), struggling through the long, cold winters in shallow soil, roots frozen. Moose, reindeer, and wolves range through these forests, while owls and ravens patrol the skies above. Much of the forest floor is covered in moss, growing in thick layers of peat (dead plant matter that decomposes slowly or not at all.) These layers of organic matter are composed almost entirely of carbon, originally drawn from the air by the respiration of plants. Only a meter or so below the surface the soil is perpetually frozen, stunting plant growth and stabilizing the subsurface temperature.
The world's boreal forest is huge—almost 20 million square kilometers (29 times the size of Texas)—but relatively uninhabited. Earth scientists and climatologists have long known that the boreal forest plays an important role in global climate, but have been hindered in their studies of the region due to the harsh conditions and remote location. The Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) was a major international research program sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and carried out in the Canadian boreal forest. It's primary goals were to determine how the boreal forest interacts with the atmosphere (via the transfer of gases and energy), how much carbon is stored in the forest ecosystem, how climate change will affect the forest, and how changes in the forest affects weather and climate. Primarily conducted from 1994–1996 (with some experiments still continuing) BOREAS integrated ground, tower, airborne, and satellite measurements of the interactions between the forest ecosystem and the lower atmosphere.
The Taiga/Boreal Biome Forests
World's Largest Land Biome covers about 11.5% of the earth's land area.
Know as the Taiga in Europe and Asia and Boreal in North America, the boreal is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The boreal ecozone principally spans 8 countries: Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. The Boreal Biome or Taiga covers 17 million square kilometres (6.6 million square miles) or 11.5% of the Earth's land area, second only to deserts and xeric shrublands. The largest areas are located in Russia and Canada. Trees such as spruce, pine, aspen, and birch dominate the landscape (which is often covered in snow), struggling through the long, cold winters in shallow soil, roots frozen. Moose, reindeer, and wolves range through these forests, while owls and ravens patrol the skies above. Much of the forest floor is covered in moss, growing in thick layers of peat. These layers of organic matter are composed almost entirely of carbon, originally drawn from the air by the respiration of plants. Only a meter or so below the surface the soil is perpetually frozen, stunting plant growth and stabilizing the subsurface temperature.
The world's boreal forest is huge—almost 20 million square kilometers (29 times the size of Texas) —but relatively uninhabited. Earth scientists and climatologists have long known that the boreal forest plays an important role in global climate, but have been hindered in their studies of the region due to the harsh conditions and remote location.
The world’s boreal zone is often called “circumpolar” because it circles the Northern Hemisphere, forming a ring around the North Pole, just south of the Arctic Circle.
Worldwide, the boreal zone covers:
1.9 billion hectares
14% of Earth’s land
33% of Earth’s forested area
ALASKA
4% of of the world's boreal forests. 90% of ALL Alaska forests are Boreal.
CANADA
28% of the world’s boreal zone – that's 552 million hectares
75% of all of its forests and woodlands in the boreal zone – that’s 307 million hectares in total
Canada’s portion of the boreal, which alone holds approximately 306.6 billion tons of carbon, an amount that exceeds 36 years of global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.
RUSSIA
57% percent of world's boreal conifer forest
23% of of the world's forests
11 per cent of the world’s biomass.
25% of Russia's forest are STILL intact.
Is the world’s largest intact forest ecosystem. It stretches across 1.2 billion acres (485 million hectares) of northern Canada, from the Yukon to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Represents 25 percent of the world’s remaining intact forest, even more than the Amazon rain forest.
Contains 25 percent of the world’s wetlands.
Includes more surface freshwater—about 200 million acres (81 million hectares)—than anywhere else on Earth.
Is North America’s bird nursery. Each year, 1 billion to 3 billion birds migrate north from the United States—and from as far away as South America—to nest in Canada’s boreal forest. Between 3 billion and 5 billion return south each fall after a successful breeding season.
Stores twice as much carbon per acre as tropical rain forests. In all, Canada’s boreal forests and peatlands lock in a minimum of 229 billion tons of carbon. Peatlands, also known as bogs and fens, are wetlands that include vegetation such as sphagnum mosses, shrubs, and spruce. This natural carbon storage helps cool the planet and provides a critical bulwark against climate change.
Is home to some of the cleanest and deepest freshwater lakes on the planet. Great Bear Lake, in the Northwest Territories, is considered the world’s largest unpolluted lake. Great Slave Lake, also in the Northwest Territories, is North America’s deepest.
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