HR: 08:20h
AN: H31K-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Building on BOREAS: Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions and the Fluxnet-Canada Continental-Scale Transect
AU: * Margolis, H
EM: Hank.Margolis@sbf.ulaval.ca
AF: Laval University, Pavillon Abitibi Price Laval University, Quebec City, QC G1K 7P4, Canada
AB: Fluxnet-Canada is a national-level research network that was built on the scientific and methodological advances developed during BOREAS and then applied them to a continental scale. The focus of Fluxnet-Canada is on understanding the role of climate and disturbance on the carbon cycle of Canadian forests and peatlands. Taking advantage of the infrastructure installed during BOREAS, we established an east-west transect of eddy covariance flux towers that encompasses many of Canada's important ecoregions from New Brunswick to British Columbia. Fluxnet-Canada, and its follow-on project, the Canadian Carbon Program, make continuous, multi- year, tower-based measurements of the net exchanges of carbon (C), water, and heat from forest and peatland ecosystems for approximately 30 sites. These measurements allow us to (a) examine the relationship between the inter-annual variability of C fluxes and climate, (b) examine the role of disturbance, (c) analyze the contribution of different ecosystem components to the net C flux; (d) explore the relationship between productivity and net ecosystem C exchange; and (e) evaluate ecosystem and climate models. This information is used to extrapolate the knowledge obtained from the specific flux sites in both space and time. A land surface flux network is essential to the development of the scientific concepts, tools, data bases, models, and decision support capabilities required to build an integrated carbon observation and prediction system for Canada and North America. BOREAS provided much of the initial scientific foundation for this effort. Some of the major results from the last five years of research will be presented, e.g., the influence of time since disturbance was found to be much greater generally than was the influence of current levels of interannual climate variability. The Canadian Carbon Program will further extend the scientific heritage of BOREAS by moving terrestrial carbon cycle science in Canada to its next phase of development. A major focus will be exploring the synergies of combining high- precision greenhouse gas concentration measurements with on-going measurements of ecosystem flux.
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610)
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0315)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 0476 Plant ecology (1851)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting