Forestry Impacts on Boreal Ecosystems

In the essay “Impacts of Forestry on Boreal Forests”, multiple authors explain how prevailing forestry practices have substantial effects on the various ecosystems of the boreal forest. The essay begins with a strong introduction explaining the importance of maintaining the boreal forests, and continues into the effects of forestry, and explains the importance this has for humans and ecological integrity. The authors of this essay begin building credibility by declaring their credentials, using reputable sources, and also citing factual data It is evident that there is a great deal of valuable research that was put into publishing this paper.

This paper also successfully utilizes emotional appeals; however, toward the end of the paper, there is a conflict of interest that weakens the credibility of the research.

Throughout the essay, the authors use many strong sources that strengthen their credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as to help build their position on the topic. Some of the material used in writing this essay comes from sources such as the Conference Board of Canada, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and also the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Pohjanmies et al.

). In citing such an extensive list of sources, the credibility of this essay and its authors is strengthened by showing that there has been a great deal of work put into creating this paper. The five authors of this essay are all extremely credible as they are professors for universities in Sweden. The authors also used an emotional appeal in this essay to interest readers, In using pathos, the author is able to create an audience who is not only interested in the scientific importance of this essay, but also interested in the importance that this essay has on ecological conservation and human life.

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The authors use pathos to explain how the boreal forests have a crucial role in global climate regulation, climate change mitigation, and also how the forests harbor a unique biodiversity of animals and plants. By enforcing these ideas, the author develops the impression that the protection of the boreal forest is of great importance for humans, and that the forest is also important to maintain in order to preserve global diversity. Further in the essay, the authors also researched the environmental impacts of forestry with respect to implications of human benefits (Pohjanmies et al.) In their findings, the authors discovered that existing literature on the ecosystem services framework does not cover the full range of boreal forestry’s potential consequences for human benefits.

This finding is very significant to the emotional appeal to the essay as it is evident that previously published literature focuses more on the benefits that are received from the boreal forest rather than the detrimental effects that are being caused by its overuse and exploitation. The authors then lead this finding into the discussion of further research that would be valuable to these findings.  Adding to the logos appeals of the paper, the authors use many different tables and graphs to display many statistics and results to support their research. In the figures of the paper, it is seen that the forest’s capacity to deliver ecosystem services appears to be weakened when forestry activities are intensive and disturbances to the natural state are acute and severe. As explained by Pohjanmies et al., “the delivery of ecosystem services may be described as a process originating in the interactions among living organisms and their environment, leading to relevant ecosystem structures and functions, and ending with the benefits and values experienced by humans.”

For example, in table 2 the reported impacts caused by production forestry are a decrease in resistance to biotic and abiotic hazards, a decrease in water flow and regularity, and an increase in pollination. By showing these properties, the author creates an emotional appeal to the reader by bringing awareness to the significance of the boreal forest for human benefit and also the importance it has to maintain ecological integrity. The organizational pattern of this paper is very concise and adds to the overall impression of the paper. First, the environmental impacts of boreal forestry are discussed and assessed how well the framework has been used in this context. Next, the links between common forest management practices and ecosystem services are described. The examples of forestry impacts on regulating services such as climate change mitigation, maintenance of soil and water quality, cultural services, and provisioning services are discussed.

Then it is noted that the environmental impacts of forestry cause changes to the ecosystem of the forest and therefore affect the ecosystem service itself. It is said that biodiversity is considered an ecosystem service of the boreal forest with cultural value to humans (Pohjanmies et al.). Conclusively, the emerging patterns of the ecosystem service framework are discussed with respect to sustainable forest management, and recommendations for future research is also mentioned. This essay is very well organized and presented, it appeals to many different readers as it is very broad in its objectives, and it is very informative. Although this essay is very well written, it could contain some bias information.

This essay does include a conflict of interest as the funding for the research was provided by the Kone Foundation and the Academy of Finland. Without regard to the conflict of interest, this paper was written exceptionally well and the level of academics that was used to write this paper is extremely high. The authors of this essay developed their ideas and supported them with dependable research. The authors also strategically used pathos as a means to emotionally appeal to the reader. This increased the overall impact of the paper and made it much more relevant to a broader audience and made it much more engaging and interesting. The authors composed an exceptionally well-written paper concerning the importance of the development of the boreal forests, and they also explained the boreal forests significance for humans and global diversity in an effective illustrative manner.