Ever wonder how many trees stand tall in North America's vast boreal forest? A new University of Alberta study has the answer, and it could benefit climate mitigation.
The tally came to 277 billion trees, including 30 billion in Alberta.
Estimated using a sophisticated machine learning algorithm, the numbers are 31 per cent higher than a count made through an earlier attempt in a major 2015 global study.
"Our research provides by far the most accurate and credible answer to the question of how many trees are in our boreal forests," says study lead Fangliang He, a forest ecologist and Canada Research Chair in Biodiversity and Landscape Modelling in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences.
The work fills a crucial knowledge gap that "reduces the uncertainty in estimating and managing tree density to promote forest productivity that enhances forest carbon sink potential," he adds.
"Knowing that there are 31 per cent more trees than previously estimated suggests our boreal forests have greater capacity to mitigate climate change."
The U of A researchers improved on the results of the 2015 work by compiling a record number of 4,367 tree plots across Canada and Alaska, compared with 346 plots used in the earlier study.
"This provides a large set of data with extensive geographic coverage in North America," He says.
