Introduction

Abstract

The structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems is ultimately determined by the state factors climate, parent material, topography, regional biota, and time (Jenny 1941, 1980). Taiga ecosystems occur at the northern limit of forests, and climate—especially temperature—might therefore be expected to exert an overriding control on ecosystem processes. Accordingly, the principal investigators in the taiga ecosystem study tested the hypotheses that productivity and nutrient cycling are less in the taiga than in temperate forests, and that variations within the taiga are controlled by differences in soil temperature (Van Cleve et al. 1983).