Kraxner, F.

Schepaschenko, D.

Shvidenko, A.

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 17, EGU2015-11121, 2015EGU General Assembly 2015© Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License.Fifty years dynamics of Russian forests: Impacts on the earth systemAnatoly Shvidenko (1,2), Dmitry Schepaschenko (1,3), and Florian Kraxner (1)(1) International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, A-2361 Austria (shvidenk@iiasa.ac.at) , (2)V.N.Sukachev Unstitute of Forest, Siberian Branch RAS, Krasnoyarsk, 660036 Russia (shvidenk@iiasa.ac.at), (3) MoscowState Forest University, Mytischi, Moscow Region, 141005 Russia (schepd@iiasa.ac.at)The paper presents a succinct history of Russian forests during the time period of 1960-2010 and reanalysis oftheir impacts on global carbon and nitrogen cycles. We present dynamics of land cover change (including ma-jor categories of forest land) and biometric characteristics of forests (species composition, age structure, growingstock volume etc.) based on reconciling all relevant information (data of forest and land inventories, official forestmanagement statistics, multi-sensor remote sensing products, data of forest pathological monitoring etc.). Com-pleteness and reliability of background information was different during the period of the study. Forest inventorydata and official statistics were partially modified based on relevant auxiliary information and used for 1960-2000.The analysis for 2001-2010 was provided with a crucial use of multi-sensor remote sensing data. For this lastperiod a hybrid forest mask was developed at resolution of 230m by integration of 8 remote sensing products andusing geographical weighted regression and data of crowdsourcing. During the considered 50 years forested areasof Russia substantially increased by middle of 1990s and slightly declined (at about 5%) after. Indicators neededfor assessment of carbon and nitrogen cycles of forest ecosystems were defined for the entire period (aggregatedestimates by decades for 1960-2000 and yearly for 2001-2010) based on unified methodology with some pecu-liarities following from availability of information. Major results were obtained by landscape-ecosystem methodthat uses as comprehensive as possible empirical and semi-empirical information on ecosystems and landscapes inform of an Integrated Land Information System and complimentary combines pool- and flux-based methods. Wediscuss and quantify major drivers of forest cover change (socio-economic, environmental and climatic) includingforest management (harvest, reforestation and afforestation), impacts of seasonal weather on carbon fluxes (NetPrimary Production, Heterotrophic Respiration), disturbances (fire, outbreaks of insects and diseases), and indus-trial pressure (land change, air pollution, water and soil contamination). During the entire period Russian forestsprovided the net carbon sink in range from 350-700 Tg C yr-1 with inter-annual variability in limits of 10-15% forthe entire country. The overall sink is a result of superposition of trends of major carbon fluxes (caused by removalof harvested wood and use of forest products; land cover change; impact of climatic trends; change of disturbanceregimes) and inter-annual variation of seasonal weather. Major indicators of the nitrogen cycle are assessed anddiscussed in connection with the carbon cycle. We provide comparative analysis of other results published for theconsidered period taken into account successive improvements of information and methodology used for studyingthe major biogeochemical cycles.

Fifty years dynamics of Russian forests: Impacts on the earth system

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