Climate change alters winter temperature and snowfall regime, changes which are expected to affect the structure and functioning of forest ecosystems. The Hokkaido Forest Research Station of Kyoto University’s Field Science Research and Education Center is located in eastern Hokkaido, where the soil is frozen due to severely cold temperature and thin snow cover in winter. In the station’s natural forests, the staff members are working in cooperation with a research group led by Prof. Hideaki Shibata of Hokkaido University to undertake a large scale in-situ snow cover manipulation experiment exploring the way in which winter climate change affects soil nutrient and microbial dynamics, plant productivity and phenology, and other factors. An interdisciplinary joint research project, the experiment involves ecologists, biogeochemists, hydrologists, physiologists, microbiologists, and pedologists.