Boreal forests play a key role in the earth’s carbon cycle, largely because of their large soil carbon pools.   While boreal forests cover approximately 11% of land worldwide, they contain 20-60% of the global soil carbon pool in their seasonally and perennially frozen peat soils (Gorham 1991, Hobbie et al., 2000).  Boreal regions have experienced dramatic warming in the past 30 years, a trend which is expected to continue.  Where such warming leads to soil thawing, boreal regions may contribute significant CO2 to the atmosphere.  To assess future stability of boreal forest carbon reservoirs, and in particular the stability of the large soil carbon pool, it is necessary to understand the environmental factors that regulate the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere, the terrestrial biosphere and the soils.

Our research at the Northern Study Area Old Black Spruce site (NOBS), located near Thompson, Manitoba, started in 1994, during BOREAS (The Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study), a large-scale, interdisciplinary climate-ecosystem interaction experiment in the northern boreal forests of Canada from 1993-1996.   Since then, our research at the site has continued as a stand-alone project producing one of the longest continuous records of atmosphere-biosphere carbon exchange.
 
 
 

	The Site
Eddy-Flux  Measurements
	BOSHAC Soil Hydrology and Carbon
Scenery and General Goofiness