Lessons from BOREAS and BERMS

Transcription

1 Lessons from BOREAS and BERMS (with a focus on water!) Alan Barr Climate Research Division Environment Canada

2 Acknowledgements Andy Black UBC, Harry McCaughey Queen s U., Ted Hogg CFS, Garth van der Kamp EC, Barry Goodison EC Charmaine Hrynkiw, Erin Thompson, Craig Smith, Dell Bayne, Randy Schmidt, Bruce Cole, Newell Hedstrom, Joe Eley, Anne Walker EC Bob Stewart, Jag Bhatti CFS Murray Peterson, Norm Stolle, Dave Wieder Parks Canada Zoran Nesic, Andrew Sauter, Kai Morgenstern, Natascha Kljun, Praveena Krishnan, Dom Lessard, Nick Grant, Rick Ketler UBC Dan Finch, Sheila McQueen, Lauren MacLean Queen s U. Fluxnet-Canada, Canadian Carbon Program NSERC, CFCAS, BIOCAP Environment Canada, CFS, Parks Canada Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change Climate Change Action Fund Program for Energy Research and Development

3 Overview History & Context Lessons Emerging Questions

4 Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) What is the role of the boreal forest in the global carbon cycle and climate system? Can we improve its representation in global models? NASA, Environment Canada, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, Canadian Forest Service, many Canadian and American Universities

5 Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) Understanding the effects of climate and disturbance on the carbon, water, and energy cycles of Canada s southern boreal forests Contributed to Fluxnet-Canada Environment Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Parks Canada, U.B.C., Queen s U., U. of S., U. of M., U. of A.

6 Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites Boreal Plains ecozone Located at southern edge of boreal forest in central Saskatchewan Forest - grassland ecotone controlled by water balance, sensitive to climate change

7 BERMS Mature Sites 100 km Old Aspen (Deciduous) Old Black Spruce (Wet Coniferous) Old Jack Pine (Dry Coniferous) Fen (Wetland)

8 BERMS Disturbed Sites Fire Harvest

9 White Gull Creek Watershed (603 or 629 km 2 ) Black Spruce 41% Wetlands 22% Aspen 17% Jack Pine 12% Harvested 8% OBS OA 100 km to SW OJP H75 H02 H94 Fen

10 White Gull Creek Streamflow Station (1994+) OBS OJP H75 H02 H94 Fen

11 White Gull Creek Annual Precipitation P in Relation to Streamflow F (Oct-Sept Water Years) Aspen Spruce Pine

12 Stand-Level Outflow at the BERMS Flux Towers vis-à-vis Streamflow (Estimated and Measured) Annual Means, White Gull Watershed, Stand (Outflow = P E* - ΔS) Watershed

13 Scientific Lessons Spring temperature the primary climatic control of inter-annual variability in CWE fluxes Landscape scale carbon dynamics driven by disturbance and drainage Carbon cycle tightly coupled to water cycle Value of long time series, frequent surprises

14 Program Lessons Power of designing multidisciplinary field programs with a synthetic modelling framework in mind Need for feedback from modellers to responsive field programs Value of measurement standardization and protocols Importance of resource allocation to data management Synergy of gov t-university research partnerships

15 Modelling Opportunities Use the BERMS study area and data sets as a test-bed to develop and evaluate: hydrologic models (multiple constraints); coupled hydrologic and carbon-cycle models; scaling methodologies, stand to region.

16 White Gull Creek Hydrographs Preliminary Modeling Results (WatCLASS) (courtesy: Bruce Davison, Matt Regier) Measured Modeled

17 Emerging Questions The water balance controls: the location of the forestgrassland ecotone; the spatial patterns of vegetation and carbon accrual across the boreal forest mosaic, via topography and drainage.

18 Emerging Questions How will climate change affect boreal forest: hydrology and streamflow; carbon dynamics, esp. of wetlands and forested peatlands; forest recession at the forest-grassland ecotone? Can we model the coupling of the carbon and water cycles at the landscape scale?