The effects of pollution on CO2 exchange in a Boreal Forest

Boreal forests are the largest biological community on earth, with an area of about 14.7×10^6 km2. Canada has about 270 Mha of boreal forests. The purpose of this project is to study CO2 exchange at the York Athabasca Jack Pine (YAJP) site near the oil sands facilities by analyzing temperature, H2O, CO2 concentration, and CO2 flux. The results show both temperature and water vapour affected the CO2 concentration and flux. When the wind direction was from the direction of upgrading facilities, a higher concentration of pollutants was measured at YAJP site. The CO2 concentration during pollution episodes was 17.3 (1.6) mmol/m3 and the flux was -5.5 (1.4) μmol/m2/s. These values are compared to 16.8 (0.6) mmol/m3 and -3.4 (0.2) μmol/m2/s when winds were not from this range (numbers in brackets are standard deviations). These results suggest that pollution at Alberta's oil sands facilities affects the CO2 exchange in boreal forests.