Russian forest sequesters substantially more carbon than previously reported

Shchepashchenko, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7814-4990, Moltchanova, E., Fedorov, S., Karminov, V., Ontikov, P., Santoro, M., See, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2665-7065, Kositsyn, V., et al. (2021). Russian forest sequesters substantially more carbon than previously reported. Scientific Reports 11 (1) e12825. 10.1038/s41598-021-92152-9.

[thumbnail of s41598-021-92152-9.pdf]
Preview
Text
s41598-021-92152-9.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and transition to a new forest inventory system, Russia has reported almost no change in growing stock (+ 1.8%) and biomass (+ 0.6%). Yet remote sensing products indicate increased vegetation productivity, tree cover and above-ground biomass. Here, we challenge these statistics with a combination of recent National Forest Inventory and remote sensing data to provide an alternative estimate of the growing stock of Russian forests and to assess the relative changes in post-Soviet Russia. Our estimate for the year 2014 is 111 ± 1.3 × 109 m3, or 39% higher than the value in the State Forest Register. Using the last Soviet Union report as a reference, Russian forests have accumulated 1163 × 106 m3 yr-1 of growing stock between 1988–2014, which balances the net forest stock losses in tropical countries. Our estimate of the growing stock of managed forests is 94.2 × 109 m3, which corresponds to sequestration of 354 Tg C yr-1 in live biomass over 1988–2014, or 47% higher than reported in the National Greenhouse Gases Inventory.

Item Type: Article
Research Programs: Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA)
Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) > Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES)
Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR)
Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) > Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services (AFE)
Strategic Initiatives (SI)
Depositing User: Luke Kirwan
Date Deposited: 17 Jun 2021 11:06
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2022 05:01
URI: https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/17270

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item