Dr. Jules Dufour
Geographer
University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
December 2002

What are the criteria that allow us to define the space that corresponds to the Borealie? Is it the space where cold climates are predominant? Is it the space where the subsurface is always sporadically or continually frozen? Is it the periglacial domain? Is it the boreal forest? In this analysis, we will attempt to provide an answer to these questions and, by characterizing and defining its limits, suggest a space that could henceforth be called the Borealie. To this end, we have used the following documentary sources:

• International reviews and studies in physical geography;
• Internet sites dealing with the boreal hemisphere;
• A number of world and national atlases. 

One could decide that the Borealie would be the name that we attribute to the whole boreal hemisphere included between the latitudes of 0° and 90° North. However, I believe that it would be quite difficult to agree upon such a name. In the austral hemisphere, there is a space that has been named Australia, but which corresponds to only a part of the hemisphere in question. The Canadian territory was almost called the Borealie, according to a text by Michel Brunet: “The new Federal State is calling itself Canada. Someone suggested calling it the Borealie. After all, had we not just created Australia? Had this suggestion been accepted, the source of many misunderstandings that surround French-Canadian political thought would have disappeared. It would have been easy to determine the difference between a Borealian and a Canadian, between a Borealian policy and Canadian policy. The name Canada attracted the majority vote. Even the “Canadiens” believed that they were taking part in the achievement of La Vérendrye’s projects when they saw the birth of a Canada a mari usque ad mare. Another illusion was added to French-Canadian folklore.” (Brunet, M., 1979).

According to some writers, the Borealie also indicates the space belonging to the Boreal forest. The company Les Productions J.L. Frund recently brought out two videos on the Boreal forest that they called: “Boréalie: de neige et de feu." (Borealie: of snow and fire) and “Boréalie: Fibre du nord - Homme.” (Borealie: Fibre of the North – Man). They describe the ecosystem: “The boreal forest stretches over 5000 kilometres (3000 miles) across North America and Northern Eurasia. As the season starts, we can see the daily combat of the moose and the beaver. We meet the black bear, the otter, the hare and the fox. We can see the Canada goose, the osprey, the spruce grouse, the grey jay and the crossbill. We enter the universe of the marshlands where we discover how birds, fish, frogs and insects cohabit.” (Productions J.L. Frund 1998). Thus, in this case, the Borealie corresponds to the boreal forest.

The term “Boreal” is widely used. According to the review Boreal Environmental Research: “Boreal is interpreted in a wide sense, i.e. including polar, subpolar and northern temperate conditions, biomes or ecosystems.” (http://www.sekj.org/BER/berscope.htm)

The Agora encyclopaedia devotes a chapter to the Borealie and refers to the boreal forest. This section is called: “Le désert de Boréalie (ou la grande déforestation du Québec) [“The Borealian desert (or the massive deforestation of Quebec] and is written by Candide (http://agora.qc.ca/v6n2.html).

The Boreal forest as mapped by the Global Forest Watch project forms a crown located in the southern part of the tundra. It has been greatly impacted by human activity and only a few parts are still intact.

I. The Borealie. The north of the boreal hemisphere

In order to define the limits of the space that properly belongs to the Borealie, we need to identify those spaces observable in the north of the Boreal hemisphere and which correspond to cold climates, that is to say climates D and E, based on Köppen’s climate classification. These are the temperate cold climates, the subarctic climates and the polar climates which are the humid continental climates located between 35° and 55° North on the eastern edge of the continents. Temperatures there are very high in the summer, winters are cold and there is considerable variation in weather conditions from one day to the next. Precipitation runs from moderate to abundant, between 500 and 1250 mm, (approx. 20 to 50 in.). The maxima are to be found in summer and diminish as you move inland or in the direction of the pole. The prevailing winds blow from the west, and there are frequent storms in winter. In Asia, it is the monsoon climate.

Further north, we find the subarctic climates, that is to say the Dfc, Dfd, Dwc and Dwd. These climates stretch between 50° and 70° North above America and Eurasia. The regions dominated by these climates are generally covered by conifer or boreal forest and tundra.

Further north, the type E climate is the glacial climate where the average temperature in the warmest month is below 10 ºC.

Can one designate these spaces subject to cold climates as the Borealie?

This is what we would suggest. These spaces would then be characterized as follows:

• Cold climates;
• Periglacial climates (climates affected by several diurnal freeze/thaw cycles);
• A frozen subsurface or sporadic and discontinuous permafrost in the northern part of the boreal forest and continuous under the tundra;
  Coniferous woodland;
• Ecosystems characterized by long, cold winters and cool, short summers.

We would also be inclined to designate as part of the Borealie the whole periglacial area in its widest sense. This area, roughly, is to be found between 50° and 70° North, in the higher altitudes and mountain areas. It is characterized by the presence of permafrost (continuous-discontinuous and sporadic), of pingos (ice-cored hills) located on Arctic shores, of surface deposits of ice wedges, of stone rings, of closed polygonal soils, of open-strip ground (ground parallel to the slope) and of solifluction lobes or terracettes. It is the frost, at the diurnal frost and thaw process, (j’ai ajouté les virgules) that causes larger or smaller elements of the soil to migrate to flat areas and slopes. These features impact the tundra ground thaw. We believe that such characteristics should be seen as part of the Borealie. It would therefore be appropriate to consider the tundra as being part of the Borealie.

In Quebec, the periglacial domain is located to the north of the 51st parallel. However, it is more closely attached to the tundra, whose southern borders are to be found at 58° North and stretch up to the 62nd parallel. According to Landry and Mercier, the southern borders of the sporadic permafrost roughly follow the average atmospheric isotherm of -1,1 ºC. This is more or less the same as at 51° North, and is a parallel that crosses to the north of Sept-Iles, the territories east of James Bay (Jamésie) and the larger part of Nunavik and Labrador. The ice core takes up less than 2% of the territory. Most of the time, it can be found on the northern side of the slopes and on the summits above the tree line (Landry et Mercier, 1992, p. 248).

The Borealie is thus covered by the climacteric boreal forest, which is almost exclusively made up of conifers and above all of black spruce (Picea mariana).

The report of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, published at the beginning of 2002, identified, in relation to the cold climates, the seven following ecoregions (CEE, 2002):

• The Arctic Cordillera;
• The Tundra;
• The Taiga;
• The Hudson plains;
• The Northern woodlands;
• The Wooded Mountains of the North West;
• The Maritime forests of the West Coast.

Consequently, we believe that the Borealie could be a space characterized by the following features:

• Cold climates (temperate climates that are cold, subarctic or arctic);
• The periglacial domain (presence of permafrost and polygonal soils);
• Ecosystems mainly covered by coniferous forests and tundra.

II. Boundaries

In order to propose an initial definition of the boundaries of the Borealie, we would look at the following elements:

Looking northwards and based on latitude:

• The Borealie stretches beyond the tundra and includes spaces in which we find a glacial climate (type E).

Looking to the south and based on latitude:

• We are at the southern limit of the D-type climates
  The southern limit of coniferous forests

Looking south and based on latitude:

• In North America, we should be including the Rocky Mountains and the coastal ranges;
• In Eurasia, the mountain ranges that make up the Earth’s Mesogean axis, running from the Alps through the Turkish mountains, the Caucasian ranges, the Himalayan massif and their continuation northwards to eastern Siberia as far as 70° North, do contain examples of the Borealie on their slopes and should be incorporated within this space. Moving on from lake Baikal eastwards, the mountain ranges of Stanovoy Khrebet, Khaborov Skiy Kray and Verkhoyansk in the Republic of Yakutsk (round the 70th parallel) could all be included within the Borealie. Looking at the southern border of eastern Siberia, we could add the Borshchovoch nyy Khrebet and Yablonooyy Khrebet ranges between the 50th and 55th parallels. With respect to the high plateaus in inner Mongolia, mainly located at altitudes between 1000 and 2000 metres (3000 and 700 ft.), they also would belong to this overall group, even though they are governed by a dry climate to be found in the lower latitudes. In other words, in Eurasia the southern limit of the Borealie includes the mountain ranges of central Asia.

Conclusion

The Borealie corresponds to the northern part of the boreal hemisphere. It is a space where we find cold climates (cold temperate, subarctic and polar), cold forests characterized predominantly by conifers. This is also the space attributed to the tundra covering the northern latitude of the American continent and stretching as far as the islands around the glacial Arctic ocean and the continental glaciers of Greenland. The Borealie, therefore, is the space where we find boreal cold, soils impacted by frost and ice, and ecosystems dominated by the conifer

This space covers almost the entire Canadian territory, Alaska, the north of the Russian Federation. To the east, the southern border of the Borealie allows one to include the Kamchatka peninsula, a part of Japan (the north of Honshu and Hokaido islands), North Korea, the extreme north of China and eastern Siberia. To the west, these boundaries follow more or less the 50th parallel. Consequently, all the Eurasian D climates will be found within the Borealie.

Bibliography

BARTHOLOMEW, J. & Sons Ltd. 1980. A Bartholomew Pocket Map. URSS. A clear, physical and political map. Edinburg.

CCE. 2002. The North American Mosaic – A State of the Environment Report. Nafta: North American Commission for Environmental Co-operation, January 2002. 100 pages.

DEMANGEOT, J. 1998. Les milieux “naturels” du globe. Paris, Colin.

LANDRY, B. et M. Mercier. 1992. Notions de géologie. Montréal, Modulo. 565 pages.

McKNIGHT, T.L. et D. Hess. 2002. Physical Geography. A Landscape Appreciation. 7th edition. London, Prentice-Hall International (UK) Limited. 629 pages.

PRODUCTIONS J.L. FRUND. 1998. Sylva Borealis: From Snow to Fire. 52 minutes. VHS/FRU 028.

RICHARD, P.J.H. 1988. Végétation du Québec-Labrador. Formations et grands domaines. Représentation cartographique.

STRAHLER, A.H. et AN. Strahler. 1992. Modern Physical Geography. 4th Edition. New York, John Wiley & Sons, inc. 638 pages.

WILLET, B.M. ed. 1987. Philips Great World Atlas. Londres, Philip. Vegetation map.

Internet sites:

Boreal Environmental Research: http://www.sekj.org/BER/berscope.html

Boréal: http://www.boreal.fr.fm/

Brunet, M. 1979. Canadians et Canadiens:

http://www.vigile.net/pol/culture/brunetcanadiens1.html

L’évolution du pergélisol entre glaciaires et interglaciaires:

http://www.cnrs.fr/dossiers/dosclim/rechfran/4theme/paleo/gdeimghtml/A13.html

Global Forest Watch : http://www.globalforestwatch.org

Encyclopédie de l'Agora: http://agora.qc.ca/v6n2.html

Productions J.L. Frund : http://www.total.net/-nuanceb/nouveauecol.htm