Comparison of Long-term Carbon Dynamics of Two Conifer Ecosystems

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9416821 Harmon Forests play a major role in the global carbon cycle, but their current role is not fully understood. To some degree this uncertainty stems from the lack of attention to regional scale analysis. Heterogeneity between and within forested regions can significantly affect carbon cycling processes and the response to climate and landuse change. This project will compare the carbon dynamics of two significant forest regions of the globe, the Pacific Northwest and northwestern Russia at three spatial levels: stand, landscape and region. The main objective is to determine the major factors controlling the spatial and temporal patterns of carbon stores and fluxes within these two major coniferous ecosystems. This analysis will be abased on the synthesis of long-term stand and weather records, forest inventory data, aerial photography, and remote sensing imagery for both regions. Past NSF-LTER/NASA studies of the Pacific Northwest forests provide the template for the proposed Russian project and comparison. The project also builds upon an ongoing collaborative study with the St. Petersburg Forest Academy. For both regions the same complex of modeling tools will be used to analyze carbon dynamics at three spatial levels as well as the impact of harvesting and carbon stored in forest projects. For northwestern Russia the models will be calibrated and tested with existing data including long-term observations on permanent plots, local growth tables and biomass equations, forest inventory data including forest types and soils, weather data, remotely sensed images and timber harvest and processing parameters. This project will encourage further international partnerships in long-term ecological studies as well as make valuable new Russian data resources available to the US scientific community.