The SIRS is a mega-project within the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which coordinates interdisciplinary, national, and international activities in Northern Eurasia that follow the Earth System Science Program (ESSP) approach. Under the direction of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), SIRS is one of the Integrated Regional Studies (IRS) that aims to investigate the environmental change in Siberia under the current environment of global change, and the potential impact on Earth system dynamics [1]. The regions of interest are those that may function as ‘choke or switch points’ for the global Earth system, where changes in regional biophysical, biogeochemical and anthropogenic components may have significant consequences for the Earth system at the global scale. Siberia is a large and significant region that may compel change [2].
Regional consequences of global warming (e.g. anomalous increases in cold season temperatures) have already been documented for Siberia [3]. This result is also supported by climate modeling results for the 20th–22nd centuries [4]. Future climatic change threatens Siberia with the shift of permafrost boundaries northward, dramatic changes in land cover (redistribution among the boreal forest, wetlands, tundra, and steppe zones often precipitated by fire regime change), and the entire hydrological regime of the territory [5–8]. These processes feedback to and influence climate dynamics through the exchange of energy, water, greenhouse gases, and aerosols [9]. Even though there have been a handful of national and international projects focused on the Siberian environment, scientists have minimal knowledge about the processes that control change in this understudied region, particularly those concerning the primary components that influence regional climate (i.e. cloud cover, precipitation) and responses and feedbacks to and from terrestrial and aquatic systems. This provides a strong impetus for the SIRS project.