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In Canada, boreal open woodlands (OWs) show interesting afforestation potential, but no detailed study is available regarding the carbon fraction (CF) of dry matter in biomass and litter reservoirs...

The success of the 2030 Agenda hinges on mobilization at the local level. The localization of sustainable development goals (SDGs) and their targets involves adapting them to local contexts. This case study of Quebec City, Canada, illustrates how the use of a systemic sustainability analysis tool can help integrate SDGs in the building of a sustainable development strategy at the local level. Our approach focuses on the use of an SDG target prioritization grid (SDGT-PG) and begins with the mobilization and training of a group of officers representing various city services. We first used an original text-mining framework to evaluate SDG integration within existing strategic documents published by the city. The result provides a portrait of existing contributions to SDG targets and identifies potential synergies and trade-offs between services and existing policies. A citywide prioritization workshop was held to assess the relative importance of SDG targets for the city. Priorities were then identified by combining the importance of the targets as viewed by stakeholders, the current level of achievement of SDG targets as determined by the analysis of existing documents, and the jurisdiction and responsibilities given to Quebec City in regard to federal and provincial legislation. We identified the main focus areas and related SDG targets. Furthermore, we observed whether actions needed to be consolidated or new actions needed to be implemented. The identification of synergies and trade-offs within the city service actions provides information on the links to be made between the different municipal services and calls for partnerships with other organizations. The use of the SDGT-PG allows the vertical and horizontal integration of the SDG targets and demonstrates how participation and inclusion facilitate stakeholders’ appropriation of the applied sustainable development strategy.

Allometric equations use easily measurable biometric variables to determine the aboveground and belowground biomasses of trees. Equations produced for estimating the biomass within Canadian forests at a large scale have not yet been validated for eastern Canadian boreal open woodlands (OWs), where trees experience particular environmental conditions. In this study, we harvested 167 trees from seven boreal OWs in Quebec, Canada for biomass and allometric measurements. These data show that Canadian national equations accurately predict the whole aboveground biomass for both black spruce and jack pine trees, but underestimated branches biomass, possibly owing to a particular tree morphology in OWs relative to closed-canopy stands. We therefore developed ad hoc allometric equations based on three power models including diameter at breast height (DBH) alone or in combination with tree height (H) as allometric variables. Our results show that although the inclusion of H in the model yields better fits for most tree compartments in both species, the difference is minor and does not markedly affect biomass C stocks at the stand level. Using these newly developed equations, we found that carbon stocks in afforested OWs varied markedly among sites owing to differences in tree growth and species. Nine years after afforestation, jack pine plantations had accumulated about five times more carbon than black spruce plantations (0.14 vs. 0.80 t C&middot, ha&minus, 1), highlighting the much larger potential of jack pine for OW afforestation projects in this environment.

We studied mature and adjacent open lichen–spruce woodlands (LWs) and closed-canopy spruce–feathermoss stands (FMs) growing under similar edaphic conditions in the continuous boreal forest zone in Quebec (Canada). A total of six pairs of stands were investigated by profile sampling. Stem density, basal area, and biomass were about four times greater in FMs than in LWs on an area basis. In the humus layer, total stocks of C and N and of exchangeable K, Ca, Mg, Al, and Na were 1.4–2.3 times larger in FM than in LW soils. The first 30 cm and the first metre of mineral soils in LWs and FMs displayed similar available nutrient pools except for total C stocks, which were more than twice as large in FM as in LW soils in these soil layers. For the whole profile, total stocks of C and N and stocks of exchangeable Ca and Mg were 1.3–2.6 times larger in FM than in LW soils. These results highlight the low intrinsic fertility of LW soils, primarily due to the humus layer, but also the importance of the biological control of C, N, and mineral nutrients in these boreal soils.

Hydropower in boreal conditions is generally considered the energy source emitting the least greenhouse gas per kilowatt-hour during its life cycle. The purpose of this study was to assess the relative contribution of the land-use change on the modification of the carbon sinks and sources following the flooding of upland forested territories to create the Eastmain-1 hydroelectric reservoir in Quebec's boreal forest using Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector. Results suggest a carbon sink loss after 100 yr of 300,000 ± 100,000 Mg CO equivalents (COe). A wildfire sensitivity analysis revealed that the ecosystem would have acted as a carbon sink as long as

Large areas of mine tailings are reclaimed by applying organic amendments such as paper mill sludge (PMS). Although mining industries can use PMS freshly generated by paper mills, operational constraints on paper industries make temporary landfilling of this material an unavoidable alternative for the paper industries, creating the most prominent PMS source for mining industries. This study aimed to quantify soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (N2O, CO2, and CH4) after application of landfilled PMS (LPMS; i.e., excavated from a landfill site at a paper mill) and LPMS combined with a seeding treatment of white clover (Trifolium repens L.) on nonacidic mine tailings site prior to reforestation. Soil N2O, CO2, and CH4 fluxes were measured after applications of 50 and 100 Mg dry LPMS ha−1 during two consecutive snowfree seasons on two adjacent sites; LPMS was applied once in the first season. The LPMS application increased N2O emissions (7.6 to 34.7 kg N2O-N ha−1, comprising 1.04 to 2.43% of applied N) compared with the unamended control during the first season; these emissions were negligible during the second season. The LPMS application increased CO2 emissions (~5800 to 11,400 kg CO2–C ha−1, comprising 7 to 27% of applied C) compared with the unamended control on both sites and in both seasons. Fluxes of CH4 were negligible. White clover combined with LPMS treatments did not affect soil GHG emissions. These new GHG emission factors should be integrated into life-cycle analyses to evaluate the C footprint of potential symbioses between the mining and paper industries. Future research should focus on the effect of PMS applications on soil GHG emissions from a variety of mine tailings under various management practices and climatic conditions to plan responsible and sustainable land reclamation.

Since 1950, the creation of open woodlands has increased in Canada's northeastern continuous boreal forest and recent studies have demonstrated that the mechanisms underlying their creation are similar to those found in the lichen woodland zone. Since no natural re-densification of open woodlands has been observed to date, afforestation is necessary to counteract an increase of these types of stands in the continuous boreal forest. The aim of this study was to test the operational feasibility and success of afforestation efforts in open woodlands, 10 years after planting. The experimental design included different containerized seedling stocks and site preparation approaches, such as patch and disk scarification, and covered most of the geographical range of accessible continuous boreal forest in Quebec. In open woodlands, regardless of black spruce stock size, disk scarification increased planted seedling survival and growth compared with patch scarification and direct planting, possibly due to a beneficial effect on seedling nutrition. However, even if seedling growth in open woodlands and feathermoss stands submitted to disk scarification was comparable, growth was higher in the latter stands. Nonetheless, we conclude that disk scarification followed by planting is an appropriate method to afforest boreal open woodlands.

Lichen woodlands (LW) located in the closed-crown boreal forest are not a successional stage moving towards a closed black spruce feathermoss stand (FM), but an alternative stable state, due to their previous forest history, and the occurrence of LWs located nearby closed-crown FM stands. Therefore, afforestation in those LWs through site preparation and plantation could shift back LW into FM stands. We implemented an experimental design with different combinations of silvicultural treatments in both site types (LW, FM). We monitored the evolution of plant diversity and the physiology of three bio-indicators (Picea mariana, Kalmia angustifolia, Rhododendron groenlandicum) in different microsites created by the silvicultural treatments. The return to the initial composition was noticed only two years after treatments, especially in the LW stands, thus indicating a higher level of early ecosystem resilience in LWs compared to FM stands. Mean species cover, especially in the FM stands, decreased the most in the skid trails created by logging, probably due to a lack of acclimation of bryophytes to open stand conditions. Conversely, ericaceous shrubs and lichens found in the LWs were already acclimated to open stand conditions, which give to LWs a restructuring advantage compared to FM plant communities after silvicultural treatments. Overall, FM and LW short-term resilience was similar, indicating equally efficient ecosystem reorganization in both stands. The comparable early resilience in managed LW and FM stands, in terms of plant biodiversity, contradicts the presumed fragility of LW stands, especially in this case where LWs are assumed to be an alternative stable state created by compound disturbances. Silvicultural treatments maintained the functional group diversity in LWs, a key element for ecosystem resilience. Therefore, this study support the idea that plantation following site preparation in LWs could be a valuable management strategy to reach several objectives, such as increasing forest carbon sinks.

Black spruce-lichen woodlands (LW) are naturally occurring unproductive low tree density stands within the eastern North American closed-crown boreal forest. Natural reforestation in LWs is impeded by the lichen mat and ericaceous shrubs that inhibit seedling establishment. Disk scarification is a mechanical site preparation method that creates furrows where lichens and shrubs are removed and mineral soil is exposed, which is the preferred seedbed for black spruce natural regeneration. The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of disk scarification on black spruce establishment in LWs by natural seeding. Disk scarification was performed amid scattered seed trees in six study sites located in the central area of boreal Quebec's spruce-moss bioclimatic domain. Newly established black spruce seedlings were significantly more abundant (ca. 81%; χ2 = 28.72, P < 0.001) in the furrows of scarified plots even though the proportion of disturbed soil was small (ca. 20%). Seedling establishment occurred for at least 3 years following scarification, with a peak in the first year. The distribution and density of seed trees (112‐363 stems ha−1) did not limit natural seedling establishment in this study. Five years after scarification, observed densities and stocking levels of newly established black spruce seedlings were sufficient to expect afforestation without planting in scarified LWs.

To mitigate greenhouse gas and comply with cap-and-trade systems, the carbon capture and storage (CCS) is presently unviable for industrials dealing with low concentration of CO2 emissions. Alternatively, a new offset opportunity is being analysed in Canada: the afforestation of open woodlands (OWs) in the boreal territory. The results obtained from model simulations (with CBM-CFS3) showed that afforestation of boreal OWs can be a low C-intensive mitigation activity, in particular when understory planting is the chosen silvicultural approach, so that only 8–12 years are needed to reach a net positive C balance with the afforestation of OWs. A large-scale afforestation of boreal OWs – scheduled at 20 kha per year during 20 years for a maximum of 400 kha – could provide capped industrials with a significant offset potential, for instance up to nearly 8% offset of all Quebec industrial process emissions (2009 data) after 45 years. In spite of a certain number of issues that can contribute to the uncertainty of the real environmental and economical benefits from the afforestation of OWs as a mitigation activity – most of which issues are discussed in this paper – this study presented a first glimpse at the extent to which the afforestation of boreal OWs in Quebec can provide large emitters with eventually substantial and efficient GHG offset potential, especially those emitters tied up with incompressible GHG emissions.

Black spruce-lichen woodlands are low tree density stands within the closed crown, North American boreal forest that represent a diverging post-fire type of black spruce forest. As natural densification of lichen woodlands has never been observed, afforestation remains the only way of shifting these stands to closed canopy stands. The objective of the study was to evaluate site preparation effects on growth and water relations of black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) and jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) seedlings in black spruce-lichen woodlands (LW), compared to managed black spruce-feathermoss stands (BSFM). Site preparation treatments in LW were no preparation (LWno), patch scarification (LWps), and disk scarification (LWds). The operationally managed BSFM stands stood for the control. Results from the third growing season indicate that soil water availability in intact or lightly prepared patch scarified LW is a limiting variable for seedling growth for both black spruce and jack pine seedlings. However, once LW are prepared with disk scarification, this planting check factor is significantly reduced, to the point of being equal to BSFM in terms of water availability and seedling water relations. The significant seedling growth difference, in favor of BSFM, might be a consequence of the lower level of pre-plantation disturbance in LW, compared to BSFM. Our results also suggest that jack pine, through higher water stress tolerance, could constitute a wise silvicultural choice over black spruce, especially with LW established on coarse drought-prone material.

A greenhouse experiment was set up during one growing season to test the hypothesis that soil temperature controls a significant part of the light response of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) seedlings that is observed in the field. The experimental design was a three by three factorial split-plot design, with three levels of light availability: 10%, 40% and 80% of full light; and three levels of soil temperature: 16 °C, 21 °C, and 26 °C in the soil at midday. The results show significant interactions between light and soil temperature factors on several variables (gas exchange, root growth, leaf-mass ratio and leaf–mass per unit area), but not on shoot dry mass. These interactions indicate that, in the field, a significant proportion of the light response of young eastern white pine could result from changes in soil temperature, especially under conditions of limiting water availability. Our results suggest that soil temperature must be taken explicitly into account as a driving variable when relating the growth of young eastern white pine to photosynthetic radiation.

Open lichen woodlands (LWs) are degraded stands that lack the ability to regenerate naturally due to a succession of natural and/or anthropogenic disturbances. As they represent both interesting forest restoration and carbon sequestration opportunities, we tested disc scarification and planting of two sizes of containerized black spruce (Picea mariana Mill. (BSP)) seedlings for their afforestation. We compared treatment of unproductive LWs to reforestation of harvested, closed-crown black spruce-feathermoss (BSFM) stands. After one year, seedling survival and nutritional status were equivalent among stand types but despite higher root elongation index (REI), planted seedlings in LWs had lower relative growth rate, smaller total biomass and stem diameter than those in BSFM stands. Soil fertility variables, soil temperature, nor seedling water potential, helped at explaining this early growth response. Disc scarification significantly improved seedling first-year survival, biomass and foliar nutrient concentrations of P, Ca, and Mg. Smaller planting stock showed higher REI, higher shoot water potential, and higher foliar nutrient concentration of all but one of the measured nutrients (N, P, K and Mg). Hence, preliminary results suggest that planting of smaller containerized black spruce stock, combined with disc scarification, shows potential for afforestation of unproductive LWs. The impact of the lichen mat and other potential growth limiting factors on afforestation of these sites requires further investigation.

The building sector is increasingly identified as being energy and carbon intensive. Although the majority of emissions are linked to energy usage during the operation part of a building's life cycle, choice of construction materials could play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental end-point damages. Increasing the use of wood products in buildings may contribute to the solution, but their environmental impacts are difficult to assess and quantify because they depend on a variety of uncertain parameters. The present cradle-to-gate life-cycle analysis (LCA) focuses exclusively on a glued-laminated wood product (glulam) produced from North American boreal forests located in the province of Quebec, Canada. This study uses primary data to quantify the environmental impacts of all necessary stages of products' life cycle, from harvesting the primary resources, to manufacturing the transformed product into glulam. The functional unit is 1 m(3) of glulam. This is the first study based on primary data pertaining to Quebec's boreal forest. Quebec's boreal glulam manufacturing was compared with two other LCAs on glulam in Europe and the United States. Our results show that Quebec's glulam has a significantly smaller environmental footprint than what is reported in the literature. From an LCA perspective, there is a significant advantage to producing glulam in Quebec, compared with the European and American contexts. The same holds true in regard to the four end-point damage categories.

It is crucial to better understand and predict how burnt areas in the boreal forest will evolve under a changing climate and landscape. The objective of the present study was to predict burnt areas at several spatial and temporal scales in the Quebec continuous boreal forest and to compare the influence of weather, vegetation and topographic variables by including them and their interactions in logistic regressions. At the largest spatial scale (350 km2), the best model explained 66% of the data variability and was able to predict burnt areas with reasonable accuracy for 11 years (r = 0.48). Weather and vegetation or topographic variables had an equivalent importance, though no single vegetation or topographic variable was mandatory to the model performance. Interactions between weather and non-weather variables largely improved the model, particularly when several weather indices were used, as the sign of the interaction with a non-weather variable could differ between weather indices. Vegetation and topography are therefore important predictors of fire susceptibility, but risk factors may vary between wind- and drought-driven fire weather. Including at least some vegetation and topographic variables in statistical models linking burnt areas to weather data can greatly improve their predictive power.

The future viability of ex vivo cell therapies will dependent largely on the optimization of culture processes leading to adequate cell production in a reasonable culture time. Toward this, we have previously reported that the megakaryocyte (MK) differentiation and the yield of MK and platelets produced ex vivo can be enhanced by culturing cord blood (CB) CD34+ cells at 39°C (Biotechnol Bioeng, 2004, 88). We are now working at better characterizing and identifying the mechanism(s) responsible for this phenomenon. First, we investigated whether this effect on cell expansion and differentiation was gradual, or whether it was rapidly induced. CB CD34+ cells were cultured in a media promoting MK differentiation at 39°C for various length of time before being placed at 37°C for a total of 14 days. Though it varied between samples, a minimum period of 4 days was required to observe most of the impacts, with the full qualitative and quantitative impacts obtained after an incubation of 7 days. Next, we analyzed the impact of the culture temperature on the cell cycle kinetics of CB cells. In short, cells grown at 39°C had a reduced mean doubling time during the first week of culture caused by a reduction in time spend in the G1 phase. This was evidenced by a, 1) decreased proportion of cells in G1 (P

During a two years study of carabids populations at Pilat mountain many different species have been trapped. La Jasserie of the Pilat (altitude 1400 m) is located on the East margin of the Massif Central, along the Rhône valley at 70 km from Lyon. The top of the mountain is a heather moor with some meadows surrounded by forests. The heather moor and meadows were extensively studied by trapping with Barber traps without any attractant. The traps were controlled weekly and beetles captured, still alive, were counted, identified and released. The list of the species is presented and discussed. The most abundant and typical are : Carabus arvensis Herbst, C. monilis F. and C. auronitens F., Harpalus latus L. and H. fuliginosus Duft., Poecilus coerulescens L. and P. lepidus Lesk., Amara nitida Sturm., A. communis Panz., A. convexior Steph., A. lunicollis Schiôdte and A. nigricornis Thomson. Of these, Amara nigricornis and Harpalus fuliginosus are the most interesting ones and are new for the area. While Amara seem prefer the moor and Carabus monilis and Harpalus fuliginosus the meadows, Carabus arvensis and C. auronitens are more widely spread. Amara and C. arvensis are active very early, at the beginning of April, when the weather is still cold. The advantage of the method used which is very efficient and does not destroy the trapped beetles is emphasized., De nombreux carabiques ont été capturés à l'aide de pièges Barber sans appât dans la lande du massif du Pilat (La Jasserie) au cours de deux années successives. La liste des espèces capturées, l'abondance et la répartition spatio-temporelle des différents taxons sont discutées. Plusieurs espèces nouvelles sont signalées parmi lesquelles Harpalus fuliginosus Duft. et Amara nigricornis Thomson constituent les captures les plus remarquablles par leur abondance et leur intérêt pour la localité. Plusieurs espèces d' Amara forment avec Carabus arvensis Herbst, C. monilis F. et C. auronitens F., Poecilus coerulescens L. et P. lepidus Lesk., Harpalus fuliginosus Duft. et H. latus L., les espèces dominantes et caractéristiques de la station étudiée., Coulon Jacques, Boucher Jean-François. Observations sur quelques Coléoptères Carabiques de la lande du massif du Pilât (Loire). In: Bulletin mensuel de la Société linnéenne de Lyon, 54ᵉ année, n°5, mai 1985. pp. 113-119.