Boreal forest snowpack research for global change

Discontinuous-permafrost landscapes are highly vulnerable to potential global change. The seasonal snowpack in northern boreal forest settings will respond to and will influence global warming, predicted to be earliest and of greatest magnitude at high latitudes. Research toward assessing global change is being conducted at a Taiga Long-Term Ecological research facility in central Alaska. Baselines of snow accumulation, ablation and chemistry are being developed, building on more than two decades of ecosystem research and monitoring. Complimentary research is conducted on ecological and hydrological processes in forest stands from lowland floodplain through upland slopes (both cold, permafrost-underlain and warm, permafrost-free) to treeline.