A new study has shown that biodiversity in Canada's forests is reduced when human activities begin to exceed 50 percent of available land
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Le boreal forests Northern Alberta are at risk, along with their inhabitants. Despite the Canadian woodland heritage has so far resisted well to human intrusions, has now reached the limit of endurance.
A new one created by a team of researchers fromUniversity of Alberta sounded the alarm. The boreal forests are no longer able to tolerate the invasion of man and his activities. There Resilience (the ability of an ecosystem to restore the equilibrium of the system, following an external intervention, editor's note) to human intrusion has even surprised researchers. As if to say, they have resisted well until today despite what man has inflicted on them, but they can no longer bear anything else.
The research team, led by the biology student Stephen Mayor, found that, to some extent, plant life in the boreal forest responded to intrusions including road construction and crop fields. However, even in the forests there was an increase in biodiversity.
To prove this, Canadian researchers did a kind of census, counting plant species at sites across Northern Alberta, an area larger than Germany. They then used satellite and aerial photos to compare the number of plant species with the percentage of human 'disturbance' and percentage of pristine northern landscape. And the results have been amazing.
It might be expected that fewer types of plants were present in areas most disturbed by humans. This was not the case. However, Mayor explains, a tipping point is reached when more than half of a surface is visibly changed by human use.
During their research, the researchers noted that when the amount of 'disturbed' soil had started to exceed 50 percent, there were fewer plant species: "Our research results show that the variety of boreal forest plants it can tolerate agricultural, forestry, even the extraction of gas and oil, but only in moderation. There are real and predictable limits ”.
The study shows that Nature has a very high tolerance limit, that Mother Nature has great patience but above all a great ability to tolerate human interference. But pulling the rope too hard means irreparably damaging it.
The research was published on October 16 on Nature Communications.
Francesca Mancuso
