A synthesis of the impact of Russian forests on the global carbon budget for 1961–1998

Abstract

An attempt is made to synthesize the current understanding of the impact of Russian forests on the global carbon (C) budget for the period 1961–1998 (37 years), based on a detailed inventory of pools and fluxes in 1988–1992, and a historical reconstruction of a full forest carbon budget for 1961–1998. All major intermediate indicators of the budget (phytomass, net primary production, impact of disturbances, soil respiration, etc.) were independently estimated and compared with earlier reported results. During the entire period, the C pools of Russian forest land (FL, 882.0 × 106 ha in 1998) increased by 433 Tg C yr−1, of which 153 Tg C yr−1 are accumulated in live biomass, 57 Tg C yr−1 in above- and below-ground dead wood, and 223 Tg C yr−1 are sequestered in soil. A significant part of this increase deals with land-cover changes. The annual average C uptake by the FL from the atmosphere, defined by a flux-based method, is estimated to be −322 Tg C yr−1 for 1961–1998. The lateral transport to the lithosph...