Understanding, Quantifying, and Predicting Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Budgets of Forest Soils under a Changing Climate in Canada

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Canada contains approximately 10% of the world's forests and approximately 25% of world's boreal forests. Boreal forests are especially vulnerable to climate change and ecosystem disturbances due to the longevity of the life of its trees and the extent of expected climate change within their life span. Changes in climate and resultant increases in ecosystem disturbances are expected to significantly alter future forest growth and production, greenhouse gas emissions and budgets in Canada. The future role of Canadian forest ecosystems in the global greenhouse gas budget is very important for policy makers considering the urgency and mechanisms for controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potential adaptation strategies. There is an urgent need to develop a better scientific understanding and to quantify the impacts of future climate change on forest ecosystems in Canada, including ecosystem productivity, GHG (CO2, CH4, N2O) budgets, and changes in the timing and magnitude of fluxes between the land and the atmosphere. The central objective of this research program is to develop and use state-of-the-art computer simulation models for full accounting of the GHG budgets in Canada’s forest soils and investigating the impacts of future climate change on the GHG budgets of forest soils across Canada. This program will develop an original and innovative approach to address the increasingly important issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This research program will train 14 highly qualified personnels (including 1 Post-doctoral, 2 Ph.D, 1 Master, and 10 undergraduate students with expertise in state-of-the art modeling, analytical and statistical methods and GHG budget accounting). The outputs of this research will fill the information gaps needed by foresters, forest managers, and policy-makers from federal agencies, local governments, forest industry and private companies for the ongoing negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol, developing GHG-based indicators for sustainable forest management, and mitigation and adaptation strategies in Canada.