The boreal zone, a vast region with abundant natural resources and related industries, has both provisioning and nonprovisioning ecosystem services that draw some people, while warding off others. It is an area that arguably affects many Canadians in different ways and represents a wide range of tangible and intangible values. Changes in demographic patterns over time shed light on the development of the social-ecological landscape of the boreal zone, and elucidate potential changes in the future. Using past and current demographic data, we explore population size, immigration and emigration, and birth and death rates within and outside the boreal zone. We also explore links between demographics, social values, and important factors of change in the boreal zone, and present three contrasting scenarios predicting the state of this zone in 2050. We pay particular attention to the Indigenous population, generational differences, international immigration, and the urban–rural divide. Fertility rates and immigration influence population demographics within and outside the boreal zone, respectively, alluding to potential divergences in social values and between communities located within and outside the boreal zone. The boreal zone is currently comprised of many smaller towns and communities scattered across the landscape, yet it is equally important to consider the influences of larger cities located outside the boreal zone, particularly in terms of governance, population movements, and political power. Considered together, these factors provide insight on social cohesion and connectedness, demand for goods and services, and changes in boreal-centric activities.

In Se–Tl, Se–Cd, Se–Au, and Se–Te contacts prepared by evaporation on a crystallized selenium layer, Schottky barrier heights were measured from junction capacitance. These were found to decrease systematically with the work function of the contacting metal. From this variation, the density of interface states was estimated to be about 1014 cm−2 eV−1, assuming an interfacial layer thickness of 10 Å. The neutral level of the states was estimated to lie close to the valence band edge.

Structures of the form Al-Bi-Se-metal were fabricated by deposition of the metals gold, cadmium, bismuth and thallium as thin films on a layer of crystallized selenium. The selenium was itself evaporated on a layer of bismuth on an aluminum base. This Al-Bi-Se base contact was rendered ohmic by substrate heating during the selenium deposition. The diodes showed forward-to-reverse current rectification ratios ranging from large for thallium to small for gold. At small forward voltage, the current density increased with increasing work function from thallium to gold, whereas the voltage intercepts Vo on plots of (capacitance)−2 versus reverse voltage decreased with increasing work function. From these Vo values and the slopes of the latter plots, barrier heights were deduced and plotted against work function. From this plot showing a decrease of barrier height with decreasing work function, it was possible to estimate an interface state density of 1013 cm−2 volt−1 assuming the existence of an interfacial layer 100Å in thickness. While the Se-Tl contact showed excellent rectification, it exhibited rapid degradation with time from atmospheric oxidation.