CENTA NERC - Biome under attack! Understanding the processes behind Boreal landscape disturbances

Boreal forests represent a critical global biome. Home to vast sources of oil, minerals and lumber, the biome acts as a global carbon store and climate regulator. Here carbon reserves are likely to vastly exceed that of tropical forests. However, this critical biome is facing a broad range of disturbances. Such high latitudes are the fastest warming regions on the planet. They are also facing extreme droughts, increased wildfire activity, severe insect infestations as well as extensive mineral exploration and mining activities. Determining the resilience of these environments to such a broad and diverse array of compound disturbances is critical to quantify their impact on global climates, regional water resources, and to inform appropriate, effective management and reclamation strategies. However, the boreal biome is not a uniform environment, but a complex mosaic of ecosystems either competing or acting in symbiosis for limited resources (water, nutrients, light). Such interactions take place in a narrow ‘critical zone’ (CZ) between ecosystem units. Despite being largely overlooked in boreal research, this CZ is a gateway that modulates landscape stability and function. This project aims to explore the interactions between constituent ecosystems, focussing specifically on interactions between wetlands and forestlands. Through a unique transcontinental research experiment, this project will explore the hydrological interactions and how they differ between extreme boreal climate regimes, from the sub humid climate of the western boreal plain to the maritime climatic conditions of Sweden. Working at the interface of hydrological, ecology and climate sciences, the research will determine how ecosystems adapt to take advantage of this CZ to control water storage within the peatland and maximise the resilience of their carbon stocks. It will investigate how changes local and regional hydrogeology, soils and topography control these interactions and the threat to such CZs of a changing climate and increased fire severities. Knowledge gained will direct future management and catchment designs by providing the foundation for the development of resilient catchments and self-sustaining ecosystems in the next generation of reclaimed Alberta Oil Sand environments.

The field research will be undertaken within the two core study regions, URSA and Krycklan (http://www.slu.se/Krycklan). Research infrastructure will build on and integrate strongly with the diverse array of ecohydrological and micrometeorological monitoring equipment within these long term study sites, each extending over 10 years. Traditional measurement techniques targeted at the critical interface zones will be enhanced through the use of high-tech approaches and landscape manipulations (site drainage) to quantify and characterise its hydrological function (notably the use of stable isotopes, geophysical imaging techniques and fibre-optic monitoring systems). This will develop on the skills and interests of the prospective candidate. Where appropriate, key feedbacks and interactions will be identified and tested through experimental monoliths within the new Birmingham Environmental Change Outdoor laboratory. Knowledge gained from these field and laboratory based approaches will be integrated within state-of-the-art modelling software currently being applied within singular climatic regions to explore the sensitivity of these critical zones to the primary climatic driver.