Key issues in disturbance dynamics in boreal forests: Introduction

In 1989, when the idea of this workshop first seeded our minds, our objective was to build bridges between mainly from North America and northern working in the boreal forest. The idea stemmed the fact that a limited number of researchers were in the boreal forest on both sides of the Atlantic, and that there was a need to attain a critical mass of with a common interest in boreal ecosystems. selected disturbance dynamics as the theme because was clear at that time that disturbance was increasingly recognized as the driving ecological force in all (Pickett & White 1985), and especially in systems (Shugart et al. 1992). Since the first (Engelmark & Bradshaw 1992; Engelmark et . 1993), many developments can be seen which contribute to the success of our enterprise. The workshop (Bergeron & Frisque 1996) and this Special include a large spectrum of research dealing disturbances in the boreal forest. Some major themes from this collection.