A physiological basis for biosphere-atmosphere interactions in the boreal forest: an overview

Interdisciplinary field experiments for global change research are large, intensive efforts that study the controls on fluxes of carbon, water, trace gases, and energy between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere at a range of spatial scales. Forest ecophysiology can make significant contributions to such efforts by measuring, interpreting, and modeling these fluxes for the individual components of forest ecosystems and then integrating the results into holistic ecosystem process models. The Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) was undertaken because of the importance of the boreal forest biome to various global change issues. The study was conducted from 1993 to 1996 at sites in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. Results have shown that physiological processes of plants in the boreal forest can have large-scale consequences. For example, the composition of tree species strongly influences flux rates, with deciduous species having much higher carbon and water fluxes than coniferous species. Additionally, physiological limitations to transpiration in boreal conifers, even when soil water is abundant, reduces latent heat flux and increases sensible heat flux over large regions. This physiological control of transpiration can increase the depth of the atmospheric boundary layer on warm spring days to a level similar to that found in desert biomes. This special issue features 10 articles that address various aspects of the physiological basis of biosphere-atmosphere interactions in the boreal forest. The articles emphasize the environmental controls on water flux, carbon flux, and ecosystem productivity.