Soil surface carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) flux (R S ) was measured for 2 years at the Boreal Soil and Air Warming Experiment site near Thompson, MB, Canada. The experimental design was a complete random block design that consisted of four replicate blocks, with each block containing a 15 m  15 m control and heated plot. Black spruce [Picea mariana (Mill.) BSP] was the overstory species and Epilobium angustifolium was the dominant understory. Soil temperature was maintained ( $ 5 1C) above the control soil temperature using electric cables inside water filled polyethylene tubing for each heated plot. Air inside a 7.3-m-diameter chamber, centered in the soil warming plot, contained approximately nine black spruce trees was heated $ 5 1C above control ambient air temperature allowing for the testing of soil-only warming and soil 1 air warming. Soil surface CO 2 flux (R S ) was positively correlated (Po0.0001) to soil temperature at 10 cm depth. Soil surface CO 2 flux (R S ) was 24% greater in the soil-only warming than the control in 2004, but was only 11% greater in 2005, while R S in the soil 1 air warming treatments was 31% less than the control in 2004 and 23% less in 2005. Live fine root mass (o2 mm diameter) was less in the heated than control treatments in 2004 and statistically less (Po0.01) in 2005. Similar root mass between the two heated treatments suggests that different heating methods (soil-only vs. soil 1 air warming) can affect the rate of decomposition.

The boreal forest is predicted to experience the greatest warming of any forest biome during the next 50-100 years, but the effects of warming on vegetation phenology are not well known. The objectives of this study were to (1) examine the effects of whole ecosystem warming on bud burst and annual shoot growth of black spruce trees in northern Manitoba, Canada and (2) correlate bud burst to cumulative degree-days (CDD). The experimental design was a complete randomized block design that consisted of four replicated blocks. Each replicate block contained four treatments: soil warming only (heated outside, HO), soil and air warming (heated inside, HI), control outside (no chamber, no heating, CO), and inside a chamber maintained at ambient conditions (no soil or air warming, control inside, CI). Bud burst was measured during the first and second years of the experiment, starting in 2004, and annual shoot growth was measured for the first 3 years (2004)(2005)(2006) of the study. On average, shoot bud burst occurred 11 and 9 days earlier in 2004 and 2005, respectively, for HI than for other treatments. However, mean CDD required for bud burst for HI was within the standard deviation of CO for both years. In year 1 of the treatments, shoot bud burst occurred earlier for HI than other treatments (CI, CO, HO), but final shoot length of HI trees was less than in CO trees. In the second year of warming, final shoot length was not different for HI than CO. By the third year of warming final shoot length was significantly greater for HI than all other treatments. Empirical results from this study suggest that soil and air warming causes an earlier bud burst for all years of observation and greater shoot lengths by the third season of warming. A longer growing season and greater annual shoot growth should increase carbon uptake by boreal black spruce trees in a warmer climate.

In order to understand the role microbial communities play in mediating ecosystem response to disturbances it is essential to address the methodological and conceptual gap that exists between micro-and macro-scale perspectives in ecology. While there is little doubt microorganisms play a central role in ecosystem functioning and therefore in ecosystem response to global change-induced disturbance, our ability to investigate the exact nature of that role is limited by disciplinary and methodological differences among microbial and ecosystem ecologists. In this paper we present results from an interdisciplinary graduate-level seminar class focused on this topic. Through the medium of case studies in global change ecology (soil respiration, nitrogen cycling, plant species invasion and land use/cover change) we highlight differences in our respective approach to ecology and give examples where disciplinary perspective influences our interpretation of the system under study. Finally, we suggest a model for integrating perspectives that may lead to greater interdisciplinary collaboration and enhanced conceptual and mechanistic modeling of ecosystem response to disturbance.

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