BOREAL FOREST CATCHMENTS - RESEARCH SITES FOR GLOBAL CHANGE AT HIGH-LATITUDES

Circumpolar subarctic boreal forest ecosystems are subject to change f rom a variety of agents and processes. Climate warming predicted by ma ny GCMs indicates that regions north of 60 degrees N may be subjected to major warming in coming decades, producing increased permafrost tha w, altered vegetation distribution and biological productivity, and pe rhaps release of large quantities of stored organic carbon into the gl obal carbon cycle. Research into change in ecosystems can entail use o f ecosystem ''samples,'' i.e., sectors of landscape such as catchments (watersheds) which are representative of the larger ecoregion and ava ilable for repeated, long-term measurement and analysis. Boreal forest research and monitoring programs have been established in hydrologica lly-defined catchments in discontinuous-permafrost regions at 65 degre es N, 148 degrees W in the Yukon-Tanana Uplands of central Alaska, and at 62 degrees N, 158 degrees W in the Kolyma River headwaters of Maga dan Oblast, northeastern Russia. These sites are available far sustain ed research into global change.