Press Release 1994-14				June 24, 1994

Contact:  	Joan Vandiver Frisch
		Manager, Media Relations
		E-mail: jfrisch@ncar.ucar.edu
		303-497-8607

Quest for the Missing Carbon:  Canada's Boreal Forests Are Focus of 
International Global Change Field Project 
BOULDER - Are the vast woodlands of Canada playing a major role 
in the evolution of climate over North America and the entire 
globe?  A large field experiment under way this summer in south 
central Canada is using satellites, aircraft, and ground-based 
observing stations, along with computer models, to profile the 
relationship between the boreal (northern) forests and the 
surrounding atmosphere.

BOREAS, the Boreal Ecosystem Atmosphere Study, is a two-year 
international project culminating in three field phases this summer 
that will trace the beginning, peak, and end of the northern growing 
season, from mid-May to mid-September.  The primary U.S. sponsor 
of BOREAS is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  
Other major U.S. sponsors include the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation 
(NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency.  Canadian support 
is coming primarily from National Resources Canada, the 
Atmospheric Environment Service,  Parks Canada, Agriculture 
Canada and the National Research Council.  At the field sites this 
summer will be several hundred participants from Canada, 
Denmark, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the 
United States.

Remote and sparsely populated, the boreal forest separates the 
prairies of the Great Plains from the tundra of the Arctic.  It extends 
in a northwest-southeast belt running from the Yukon Territory to 
Ontario.  The BOREAS study region is a rectangle covering most of 
Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  Two smaller intensive study areas are 
located within this region on either side of the boreal belt, near 
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and Thompson, Manitoba.

One major question the BOREAS researchers hope to answer 
concerns the role played by the boreal region in storing carbon.  
Scientists are presently unable to track the destination of some of the 
carbon that is released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon 
dioxide and other gases.  Recent studies suggest that the boreal 
region may be one of the missing "sinks" for this carbon.

Because the processes of atmospheric chemistry are so tightly linked, 
the researchers in BOREAS will be sampling many kinds of gases.  
The Electra research aircraft, owned by NSF and based at the 
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, 
Colorado, will fly between the Prince Albert and Thompson field 
sites, taking air samples along the way.  Some samples will be 
shipped to Boulder for analysis by NCARŐs Atmospheric Chemistry 
Division to determine the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and 
other constituents present.

Air-flow measurements taken from the Electra - flying as low as 100 
feet (30 meters) - will reveal how trace gases are circulating in and 
around the BOREAS region and what factors are controlling the 
exchanges of energy between the boreal forest and the atmosphere.  
One new instrument on the Electra measures the concentrations of 
trace gases in air parcels moving upward or downward to determine 
the net transport of carbon by those gases.  Another instrument, 
developed and operated by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of 
the German Aerospace Research Establishment, is a lidar that 
measures atmospheric water vapor and aerosol distributions 
between flight level and the ground.  This instrument is similar to 
radar but uses laser  beams instead of radio waves. 

The second major question addressed by BOREAS is the potential 
impact of climate change on the boreal forest itself.  Computer 
models (simulations of the real atmosphere) show that the subpolar 
northern latitudes from around 45ˇ to 65ˇN could be the region of 
earth most affected by global warming due to increased carbon 
dioxide and other greenhouse gases.  Such warming - which could 
average as much as 10ˇC (18ˇF) in these regions over the next 
century - might substantially change the makeup and functioning of 
the boreal forest.  Changes in the forest, in turn, would alter local 
weather and climate patterns.  Studies of the north and south fringes 
of the forest, where temperature contrasts are the greatest, will shed 
light on what might happen to the forest in a changing climate.  
Seasonal variations also will be analyzed across the three study 
periods.

To improve computer models of global climate, a better 
understanding is needed of how small-scale interactions between 
plants and the atmosphere translate to larger scales.  Specialists in 
plant ecology at BOREAS will be measuring variables such as soil 
moisture, leaf area, and radiation absorption for regions as small as a 
single tree.  These data will be connected to local measurements of 
air, heat, and momentum flow, then extended to progressively 
larger scales and eventually connected to global satellite data and 
climate models.
NCAR scientists participating in BOREAS include William A. (Al) 
Cooper, Kenneth Davis, James Greenberg, Donald Lenschow and 
Steven Oncley.  NCAR is operated by the University Corporation for 
Atmospheric Research under the sponsorship of NSF.
Writer:  Bob Henson