Viability of the North as an agricultural region; a local or a global story?
Most of the world`s food is currently produced in the temperate zone, but accelerated shifts in climatic conditions risk substantial reduction of agricultural productivity by 2100. On the other hand the boreal region is also undergoing drastic changes by 2100 allowing rapid shift of crops and cropping systems into the boreal region. These divergent scenarios linked to climate change objectively set up the stage for a northward expansion of agricultural cropping systems. This will affect both current farming practices and the related social structures and also open the region to new opportunities with their respective challenges. This raises critical social questions, superimposed on a need for a strong natural sciences support to develop and establish a coherent advisory system to insure the sustainability of such expansion in the boreal region. Nevertheless the research in support of the management of this northward expansion is yet to be developed to the point where it can meaningfully contribute to the management of agriculture in the boreal region with distinct edaphic, hydrologic and solar radiation dynamics. The fact that most of this expansion occurs, by necessity, on lands converted to agricultural use from their current natural states, creates a dynamic system that requires tailored management alternatives and political decisions that are hardly supported by the current body of knowledge. It is critical to accelerate the applied research in support of these developments and there is an obvious need for a cohesive agricultural research network that integrates natural sciences, social sciences and policy development across the boreal region. A first step is to establish a knowledge exchange platform that allows communities, farmers, scientists and policy makers to examine and rapidly respond to challenges unique to agriculture in the north.
Three simple questions are central to everything we do: “why?“, “should we?” and “so what?”. Namely, program directions and testable hypotheses emerge from understanding of the local particularities integrated within regional and global contexts, to eventually create an understanding of the target system. Type of decision and decision-making drivers vary across scales of farming. Cohesiveness and comprehensiveness are essential to effectively and timely address the prerequisites of developing crop based food systems in new regions, with unique natural and social conditions, while balancing climate change effects.
While our work is based mainly in Newfoundland and Labrador, its justification and impacts align with the trend of converting northern natural lands to agriculture across the North:
Policies vs. ecosystems
Perceived or actual decreases in agricultural productivity might support decisions to expand farmlands and intensify agriculture. Perceived new market opportunities, even for stable or increased agricultural productivity, may also support expansion and intensification policies. Such policies may be further reinforced by the by “beneficial” changes in climate favouring northern agriculture, and by aspirations for enhanced local food security and anticipated participation in the global markets. LULUC decisions must be contextualized within the limited adaptation capacity of the natural ecosystem to ensure overall sustainability of agricultural systems in rapidly changing northern regions (image source).
Expansion challenged by landscape heterogeneity
The boreal landscape created in the wake of retreating glaciers is a heterogeneous mosaic of forests, mainly coniferous, interspersed with bogs and fens. As expansion of agriculture in the boreal region depends on the conversion natural land to farmland, the converted farmland landscape will reflect distribution of boreal forest patches around the lower laying wetlands. This creates non-uniform farm fields with significant edge (natural to managed) to area proportions. The image exemplifies how this is reflected in “patchy” farm fields upon conversion (49.305480, -57.388431, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada). An interactive version of this image can be found here.
Agriculture on converted lands; a matter of soils and carbon
Converting a boreal forest’s Podzol for agriculture removes an organic horizon (LFH) above mineral soil horizons (Ae and B) bereft of any significant carbon stores (where organic matter [OM] is commonly found as relatively stable iron chelates). This future farm soil is then managed using fertility-searching, high organic inputs, creating the conditions for storing mineral associated and particulate OM. Fe and Al phosphates from the forests’s subsoil are brought into the newly developed ploughed layer with drastic biochemical effects. Soil hydrology is altered. Soil biotic community needs to be restored. The short- and long-term significance of conversion is yet to be understood. Farm sustainability and impacts on local and global matter cycles are de-facto integrated in our research program.
We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.
