Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Alaska
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

This research will combine field measurements (Objective 1) with models (Objective 2) to detect and predict state changes in boreal ecosystems of Interior Alaska in response to changing climate and land management. OBJECTIVE 1) Determine mechanistic links among fire, soils, permafrost, and vegetation succession in order to develop and test field-based ecosystem indicators that can be used to directly predict ecosystem vulnerability to state change. OBJECTIVE 2) Forecast landscape change in response to projected changes in climate, fire regime, and fire management.