With the advent of climate change, weather cycles will be greatly modified, for example a decrease in precipitation interspersed with an increase in temperature. Other more extreme events will reverberate at shorter intervals. However, mitigation and adaptation measures are struggling to be put in place.
I am convinced that these new conditions are very likely to disturb the old forests, since they will not have had time to adapt to them. In my view, significant impacts on genetic, species and ecosystem biodiversity are to be expected. Hence the growing concern about the future of these exceptional ecosystems.
Old-growth forests support populations of endemic and status species that depend on old-growth forests.
However, old forests are less and less favorable habitats, since they are small in area, they are fragmented and those that are protected are mainly located in the south of the province.
As a result, old-growth forests and boreal wildlife species, disturbed by forestry, do not receive protection equivalent to that of the South, which is completely paradoxical in an ecosystem-based management context. What will happen to their conservation under the economic pressure of forest harvesting and under the effect of climate change?
Due to climate change, species will move in order to follow their range; however, in a context of species dependent on old forests, their movement may be difficult, since they will have to be exposed to the competition and predation present in other adjacent environments, very different from their natural habitats. In my opinion, these effects risk upsetting the specific biodiversity of ancient forests. So how will wildlife species manage to adapt knowing that they move faster than plants?
Loss of biodiversity
The fragmentation of old forests over the long term leads to a loss of genetic biodiversity, since the species find themselves isolated within the territory, which reduces genetic mixing. The homogeneity of genes reduces the resistance and resilience of old growth forests to diseases, insects and the consequences of climate change.
However, in a context of climatic migration, I am convinced that new disturbances (diseases, insects, etc.) will affect the adaptive capacity of old-growth forests, since the establishment of an old-growth forest is a process that takes place on several years, among other things by natural selection. As climate change occurs, it will alter the distribution of the world’s forests. Obviously, not all species will be disadvantaged by these changes, but, in my opinion, those that will have difficulty moving may disappear.
From a sustainable management perspective, ecosystem-based management aims to reduce the gaps between the natural forest and the managed forest, for the three components of biodiversity.
However, current landscapes show a decline in old-growth forests compared to past landscapes. I am of the opinion that this loss of old forests in the matrix of a landscape made up of different environments is detrimental to the natural cycles that occur at the landscape scale, such as the reduction of dead wood, a major and essential component in the regeneration and decay of old growth forests.
However, this old-growth management scenario does not occur only in Quebec. You’ve no doubt heard lately about old-growth forests in British Columbia being heavily logged. What will then remain of our ancient forests in Quebec and Canada by 2100?