Residents of Canada and other northern circumpolar countries are concerned with the scenarios of climate change since Global Circulation Models predict that global warming over the next 30-50 years will be most evident in the northern regions (Bolin et at. 1986; Roots 1989; Maxwell 1992). Climates in the north would be supportive of much more southern types of biotic systems (Emanuel et al. 1985).We recognize that fire may be the most important (widespread) driving force in changing the taiga under climatic warming conditions. At the time of burning, CO2 is released to the atmosphere where this greenhouse gas will act as a feedback loop to global warming. In addition, CO2 release continues for one or more decades after the fire because of higher decomposition rates of organic matter, particularly in northern soils. As for climate change stresses on the biota of the ecosystem, it is our hypothesis that these energy and nutrient conservative ecosystems change vary slowly even if the climate changes; however, fire can be a triggering event to remove species that are poorly adapted to the new climate regime. More importantly, fire modifies the physical environment and disrupts the population dynamics to such an extent that there can be strong changes in species abundance and new species may invade the burned area.