The changing atmosphere, forest biodiversity and productivity in Ontario, Canada

Canada responded to the Global Biodiversity Convention by completing the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy and a national Science Assessment on Biodiversity in 1995. Beginning in 1994, the Smithsonian Institute, in partnership with Parks and Environment Canada, initiated the implementation of a global biodiversity monitoring program in Canada. Traditionally, atmospheric and ecological observing networks have operated within separate mandates with little degree of co-networking. In this case, the biodversity networks in Ontario were designed to operate across climate, chemical and ecological gradients to better understand the cumulative impacts of the Atmosphere. This required the assemblage of inter-disciplinary maps, at various scales, including their spatial integration. Detailed examples of the cumulative effects of climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid deposition, ground-level ozone and other hazardous air pollutants on forest biodiversity will be discussed using this integrated mapping approach, especially the impact of climate change on biodiversity. In addition, thermal stress and soil moisture versus forest productivity models were constructed for specific species, such as Jack Pine (Pinus Banksiana ) and Black Spruce (Picea Mariana ), using growth layer analysis technologies. Of particular note is the narrow range of optimum temperatures for one species compared to the next, based on climate-physiological analysis.