Bradshaw Corey J A, Warkentin Ian G, Sodhi Navjot S
The Environment Institute and School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2009 Oct;24(10):541-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.03.019. Epub 2009 Aug 11.
Containing approximately one-third of all remaining global forests, the boreal ecosystem is a crucial store of carbon and a haven for diverse biological communities. Historically, fire and insects primarily drove the natural dynamics of this biome. However, human-mediated disturbances have increased in these forests during recent years, resulting in extensive forest loss for some regions, whereas others face heavy forest fragmentation or threat of exploitation. Current management practices are not likely to maintain the attendant boreal forest communities, nor are they adequate to mitigate climate change effects. There is an urgent need to preserve existing boreal forests and restore degraded areas if we are to avoid losing this relatively intact biodiversity haven and major global carbon sink.
北方生态系统包含了全球剩余森林的约三分之一，是一个至关重要的碳储存库和多样生物群落的栖息地。从历史上看，火灾和昆虫主要驱动了这个生物群落的自然动态变化。然而，近年来人类介导的干扰在这些森林中有所增加，导致一些地区出现大面积森林损失，而其他地区则面临严重的森林碎片化或开发威胁。当前的管理措施不太可能维持随之而来的北方森林群落，也不足以减轻气候变化的影响。如果我们要避免失去这个相对完整的生物多样性栖息地和主要的全球碳汇，就迫切需要保护现有的北方森林并恢复退化地区。
