Introduction to BOREAS special issue

Abstract

Carbon flux attributed to the boreal forest biome significantly impactsthe global carbon cycle. The multi-scale Boreal Ecosystem AtmosphereStudy (BOREAS) was initiated to investigate exchanges between borealforests and the atmosphere, to examine the effects of increased atmosphericCO2 concentration on boreal forests, to develop and improve processmodels to describe exchanges between boreal forests and the atmosphere,and to develop methods for the large-scale application of these models.Field measurements have shown that boreal ecosystems differ significantlyfrom their temperate and tropical counterparts with respect to seasonality,productivity and biosphere-atmosphere interactions.