Northern wildfires endanger black spruce trees

This article originally appeared in The Circle: Arctic Biodiversity: Where is it heading?. The Circle shares perspectives from across the Arctic, and the views expressed here are not necessarily those of WWF. See all Circle issues here.

A NEW STUDY published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America has found that more frequent Arctic wildfires are causing black spruce trees to lose their resilience and capacity to regenerate.

Black spruce has long been the dominant tree species in the boreal forests of North America, whose soils contain highly flammable peat moss and lichens.

Although the trees usually rely on fires for regeneration—the heat causes their cones to open up and drop seeds—the more severe and frequent fires seem to be damaging their capacity to regenerate.

To conduct the study, scientists gathered data from more than 1,500 fire sites. They found that the black spruce’s regeneration capacity had dropped at 38 per cent of these sites and failed entirely 18 per cent of the time.

Widespread loss of black spruce trees could harm biodiversity in the boreal forests, affecting the Arctic as well. For example, caribou, which are already in decline, depend on the trees for shelter and food.