Ecosystems and climate interactions in the boreal zone of northern Eurasia

Abstract

The climate system and terrestrial ecosystems interact as they change. In northern Eurasia these interactions are especially strong, span all spatial and timescales, and thus have become the subject of an international program: the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI). Without trying to cover all areas of these interactions, this paper introduces three examples of the principal micrometeorological, mesometeorological and subcontinental feedbacks that control climate-terrestrial ecosystem interactions in the boreal zone of northern Eurasia. Positive and negative feedbacks of forest paludification, of windthrow, and of climate-forced displacement of vegetation zones are presented. Moreover the interplay of different scale feedbacks, the multi-faceted nature of ecosystems-climate interactions and their potential to affect the global Earth system are shown. It is concluded that, without a synergetic modeling approach that integrates all major feedbacks and relationships between terrestrial ecosystems and climate, reliable projections of environmental change in northern Eurasia are impossible, which will also bring into question the accuracy of global change projections. © IOP Publishing Ltd.