LTER: Interaction of Multiple Disturbances with Climate in Alaskan Boreal Forests

北方森林在决定全球气候变化速度方面起着至关重要的作用，因为(1)水和能量交换的变化可能会影响区域变暖，(2)碳储量的变化可能会影响全球范围内的气候变暖速度。这份博南扎溪长期生态研究计划的LTER更新建议试图将阿拉斯加北部针叶林理解为一个综合的区域系统，其中气候、干扰制度和生态系统过程是相互作用的组成部分。总体目标是记录对这些相互作用的主要控制及其生态和社会后果。骚乱是区域系统不可分割的一部分。研究的重点将是不同的干扰如何影响种群和生态系统过程，以及这些过程与气候相互作用的机制，以确定昆虫暴发和火灾的可能性。研究将集中在北部地区最发达的人口过程或具有最强烈的生态和社会后果的人口过程。这些过程包括干扰后的植物演替以及这些演替变化对(1)物种多样性、(2)哺乳动物和昆虫的种群动态以及(3)区域干扰制度的影响。生态系统研究的重点是碳循环，因为北方碳循环的变化具有明显的全球后果，而且碳循环的预测性建模需要了解林分和区域尺度上的潜在气候、人口和生态系统过程。水生研究将与陆地计划相结合，重点关注水文和干扰对水生群落结构和功能的影响。这些过程具有直接的社会意义(例如，区域和全球气候、火灾、虫害暴发、木材、猎物种群、水质、鱼类)，因为这些过程融合了基本的认识，并使结果有益于影响肯定会对北方地区造成越来越大的人类影响。

9810217ChapinThe boreal forest plays a crucial role in determining the rate of global climate change because (1) changes in water and energy exchange could affect regional warming and (2) changes in carbon storage might affect the rate of climatic warming at the global scale. This LTER renewal proposal for the Bonanza Creek Long-term Ecological Research program seeks to understand the Alaskan boreal forest as an integrated regional system in which climate, disturbance regime and ecosystem processes are interactive components. The overall objective is to document the major controls over these interactions and their ecological and societal consequences. Disturbances are incorporated as an integral part of the regional system. Research will focus on how different disturbances affect population and ecosystem processes and the mechanisms by which these processes interact with climate to determine probability of insect outbreak and fire. Studies will focus on population processes that are best developed in boreal regions or which have the strongest ecosystem and societal consequences. These processes include plant succession following disturbance and the consequences of these successional changes for (1) species diversity, (2) population dynamics of mammals and insects, and (3) regional disturbance regimes. The ecosystem research focuses on the carbon cycle because changes in boreal carbon cycling have clear global consequences and because a predictive modeling of the carbon cycle requires an understanding of the underlying climatic, population, and ecosystem processes at stand and regional scales. The aquatic research will be integrally tied to the terrestrial program through an emphasis on hydrologic and disturbance impacts on aquatic community structure and function. These processes have immediate social relevance (e.g., regional and global climate, fire, insect outbreaks, timber, game populations, water quality, fish) because these integrate basic understanding and make results useful in influencing what will certainly be an increasing human impact on the boreal region.