Assessment of carbon sequestration in representative forests and agroecosystems in Canada

The prospect of global climate change is a major issue facing Canada and the world. In order to reduce the threat of forecasted climatic changes resulting from an anthropogenic enhancement of the greenhouse effect, it will be necessary to reduce, or at least stabilize emissions of radiatively active gases. The removal of these gases from the atmosphere (by “sinks”) and the storing of carbon (by “reservoirs”) are recognized as important strategies for mitigating the atmospheric accumulation of radiatively active gases. Canada is a country with enormous quantities of forest and agricultural lands that could be managed in order to sequester and/or store carbon.;The purpose of this thesis is to assess carbon sequestration in representative forest and agroecosystems in Canada. In Section I, two case studies are developed in order to examine climate change mitigation strategies in representative forest management settings. One is set in a forest management unit in the boreal mixedwood forest of north-eastern Alberta. The other is set in a timber supply area in the temperate coniferous rainforests of British Columbia's mid-coast area. In Section II, climate change mitigation strategies in Canada's largest agriculturally productive region, the Prairie Provinces, are examined, with particular focus on strategies for enhancing carbon storage in cultivated soils. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).