JSPS Core to Core Program
Upscaling the evaluation for the symptom of environmental changes in permafrost area in Siberian Taiga
Siberia, unlike European Russia, has a large area of permafrost. Although, the precipitation regime is characteristic of steppe climates, water melted from the permafrost layer during summer nurse a large larch-taiga area, which has been a carbon sink for a long time. Recently, however, forest burning and large-scale deforestation have accelerated soil temperature increase and consequently melting of the permafrost. Melting of permafrost changes water and soil quality, and stimulate the emission of green house gasses. Siberia is supposed to be one of the regions with the highest temperature rise for the 21st century, thus, data collection of the status quo is highly required to evaluate the effect of the global warming.
There are some large international projects that evaluate the global
carbon cycle at present. Most of these projects create models using carbon
balance data from monitoring towers (e.g. FluxNet), reaction of forests
to carbon dioxide (CO2) fertilization (Free Air CO2 Enrichment: FACE),
and information about the ecosystem obtained from remote sensing. These
projects aim to evaluate natural ecosystems, and the evaluation of landscape
change remains a problem. Dynamics of nutrients such as nitrogen has also
not been considered yet. Global nitrogen cycle has doubled compared to
pre-industrial times, rising environmental damages such as eutrophication
and acidification. The International Nitrogen Initiative (UNEP) leads projects
on nitrate leaching and green house gas emission. Quantification of increased
carbon and nitrogen in the outflow to rivers due to decomposition of organic
matter through forest burning is also required.
The objective of this project is to foster the cooperation among preceding research projects to clarify the position of studies in Siberia. Based on these studies, a program will be made to construct a scenario to preserve the Taiga area.
bibliographyReserch papers from The International Symposium on "Regeneration and dynamics of mixed conifer broad-leaved forests in East Asia after Natural and Man-made disturbances" (updated on Jul 25th, 2007)Hokkaido University Graduate School of Agriculture
Division of Environmental Resources Research Group
Regional Environment Laboratory
Soil Science
060-8589 Sapporo Kitaku
Kita 9, Nishi 9
+81-11-706-3857
Contact address:hatano@chem.agr.hokudai.ac.jp