Scaling the Physiology and Structure of Forests in Space and Time

本研究将探讨森林生理过程和森林结构特征在陆地碳循环中的作用。 这项研究将利用我们在过去十年中获得的大部分现有设备和数据。 该研究方案有三个组成部分：（a）实地测量部分;（B）生态生理建模部分和（c）航空和卫星遥感部分。 这些方法的结合将使我们能够保持一个高度创新的研究环境，继续培养研究生和其他高素质的人才。 该研究计划有三个目标。(1)使用短的时间步长测量交换的C，水和能量从通量塔，以及相关的生态测量，记录生态系统生理和C通量如何演变森林收获后，这些因素是如何影响森林结构和气候的加拿大东部的北方森林。 收获十年后，我们的连续测量表明，生态系统在2010年首次实现了碳中和。 接下来，我们将测试关于生态系统生理学和结构在碳中性点之后如何进化的假设。 (2)将通量塔和森林清查的数据与生态生理过程模型和模型数据融合框架相结合，以评估加拿大东部北方森林结构和功能的高频环境变异的重要性。然后，我们将把它扩展到更大的空间尺度。 这项工作将有助于建立一个分析框架，以便将高频环境变异纳入今后的气候评估报告。 (3)使用我们的机载激光雷达和高光谱遥感包来评估ICESat GLAS激光雷达卫星传感器估计北美及其次区域森林生物量的能力，特别是北方生物群落。 我们将确定如何使用树木覆盖和植物功能类型信息来确定何时可以使用其他数据源补充激光雷达数据。 这项工作将有助于提供一个统计和分析框架，以估计区域C类种群的空间分布。

This research will address the role of forest physiological processes and forest structural characteristics in the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. The research will leverage much of the existing equipment and data that we have obtained over the last decade. The research program has three components: (a) a field measurement component; (b) an ecophysiological modeling component and (c) an airborne and satellite remote sensing component. The combination of these approaches will permit us to maintain a highly innovative research environment for the continued training of graduate students and other highly-qualified personnel. The research program has three objectives. (1) Use short time-step measurements of the exchange of C, water, and energy measured from a flux tower, as well as associated ecological measurements, to document how ecosystem physiology and C flux evolve following forest harvest and how these factors are affected by forest structure and climate for the boreal forest of eastern Canada. Ten years after harvest, our continuous measurements have shown that the ecosystem attained C neutrality for the first time in 2010. We will next test hypotheses about how ecosystem physiology and structure evolve after the point of C neutrality. (2) Integrate data from flux towers and forest inventories with an ecophysiological process model and a model-data fusion framework to evaluate the importance of high-frequency environmental variability on the structure and function of boreal forests in eastern Canada. We will then extend this to larger spatial scales. This work will help establish an analytical framework for incorporating high-frequency environmental variability into future climate assessment reports. (3) Use our airborne lidar and hyperspectral remote sensing package to evaluate the ability of the ICESat GLAS lidar satellite sensor to estimate forest biomass of North America and its sub-regions, particularly the boreal biome. We will determine how tree cover and plant functional type information can be used to determine when the lidar data can be supplemented with other data sources. This work will help provide a statistical and analytical framework for estimating the spatial distribution of regional C stocks.