What do we know about Russian forests today?

The paper presents a short analysis of state and accuracy of forest inventory in Russia during 1961-2009. Major numerical characteristics for all forests of the country, which were obtained by system integration of remote sensing products and on-ground information are discussed and compared with data of official forest inventory. Necessity of development a new forest inventory system in Russia is discussed

Carbon budget of Russian forests

Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance (NECB) of Russian forest for 2007-2009 is presented based on consistent application of applied systems analysis and modern information technologies. Use of landscape-ecosystem approach resulted in the NECB at 546+/-120 Tg C year ^1, or 66+/-15 g C ^-2 year ^-1. There is a substantial difference between the NECB of European and Asian parts, as well as the clear zonal gradients within these geographical regions. While the total carbon sink is high, large forest areas, particularly on permafrost, serve as a carbon source. The ratio between net primary production and soil heterotrophic respiration, together with natural and human-induced disturbances are major drivers of the magnitude and spatial distribution of the NECB of forest ecosystems. Using the Bayesian approach, mutual constraints of results that are obtained by independent methods enable to decrease uncertainties of the final result

Biological Productivity and Carbon Budget of Larch Forests of Northern-East Russia

The book contains a multi-aspect analysis of the current state of forest resources of the Russian North-East based on diverse experimental and inventory data. Ecological and geographical peculiarities of the larch forests are described for Saha Republic, Magadan oblast, Korak and Chukotka Autonomous okrugs. The system of models which tie together biometric indicators of larch ecosystems in static and dynamics is presented. The dynamics of carbon equestration by different components of larch ecosystems is quantified. The full carbon budget of larch ecosystems of the study's region is estimated for the period of 1993-2003. The book is addressed to forest managers and forest inventory experts, ecologists, and global change community

The pool of organic carbon in the soils of Russia

An automated information system making it possible to estimate spatial distribution of soil organic carbon pool with a high spatial resolution (1 km2) has been developed. According to the obtained estimates, the total pool of organic carbon in the 1-m-deep soil layer on the territory of Russia reaches 317.1 Pg; the average organic carbon density in this layer for the entire Russia constitutes 19.2 kg C/m2. Of this amount, 14.4 Pg (or 0.90 kg C/m2) is stored in the litter horizon. The developed algorithm allows us to refine the results with the acquisition of new data on soils, vegetation, and the degree of their disturbance, which is particularly important in the changing world

Creation of forest map for Ukraine using global land cover maps

The method for building forest digital map for Ukraine is presented based on the information of forest land in the global digital maps. The latest global maps covering the territory of Ukraine: Glob Cover 2009, MODIS v.5 and GLC-2000 were analyzed. Based on the developed method the digital map of Ukrainian forests was created with the information on forest land with high probability (all global products agreed) and land with low and medium probability of growing forest. The achieved results were compared with the national data of forest land account. The forest land was better defined in the Forest natural area, the Carpathians, and the Crimea; small forest was really badly identified in the steppe