A twenty year retrospective on the forest carbon dynamics in Russia

Zamolodchikov, D. G.; Grabovskii, V. I.; Kraev, Gleb

doi:10.1134/s1995425511070022

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Broadleaf and mixed forests have lower stand-replacement fire rates according to our data. The logging area in Russia increased during the last decade from 0.6 to 1 Mha (Zamolodchikov et al 2011). Our data does not show a statistically significant trend of annual stand-replacement fire during the same time interval.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 57%

Remote sensing estimates of stand-replacement fires in Russia, 2002–2011

Krylov

McCarty

Potapov

et al. 2014

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The presented study quantifies the proportion of stand-replacement fires in Russian forests through the integrated analysis of Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data products. We employed 30 m Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus derived tree canopy cover and decadal (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) forest cover loss (Hansen et al 2013 High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change Science 342 850-53) to identify forest extent and disturbance. These data were overlaid with 1 km MODIS active fire (earthdata.nasa.gov/ data/near-real-time-data/firms) and 500 m regional burned area data (Loboda et al 2007 Regionally adaptable dNBR-based algorithm for burned area mapping from MODIS data Remote Sens. Environ. 109 429-42 and Loboda et al 2011 Mapping burned area in Alaska using MODIS data: a data limitations-driven modification to the regional burned area algorithm Int. J. Wildl. Fire 20 487-96) to differentiate stand-replacement disturbances due to fire versus other causes. Total stand replacement forest fire area within the Russian Federation from 2002 to 2011 was estimated to be 17.6 million ha (Mha). The smallest stand-replacement fire loss occurred in 2004 (0.4 Mha) and the largest annual loss in 2003 (3.3 Mha). Of total burned area within forests, 33.6% resulted in stand-replacement. Light conifer stands comprised 65% of all nonstand-replacement and 79% of all stand-replacement fire in Russia. Stand-replacement area for the study period is estimated to be two times higher than the reported logging area. Results of this analysis can be used with historical fire regime estimations to develop effective fire management policy, increase accuracy of carbon calculations, and improve fire behavior and climate change modeling efforts.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 57%

Remote sensing estimates of stand-replacement fires in Russia, 2002–2011

Krylov

McCarty

Potapov

et al. 2014

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…The steepest ABC decline is observed during 2002-2005 over the Americas, most likely caused (Fig. 3b), particularly in Russia (+0.10 PgC yr −1 ) owing to regrowth on abandoned state farmland 19 and in China (+0.07 PgC yr −1 ) resulting from afforestation programmes 20 (see Supplementary Fig. 8).…”

Section: Abc Changes In Space and Timementioning

confidence: 94%

Recent reversal in loss of global terrestrial biomass

Liu

Dijk

Jeu³

et al. 2015

Nature Clim Change

553

585

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Vegetation change plays a critical role in the Earth's carbon (C) budget and its associated radiative forcing in response to anthropogenic and natural climate change 1-4 . Existing global estimates of aboveground biomass carbon (ABC) based on field survey data provide brief snapshots that are mainly limited to forest ecosystems 5-8 . Here we use an entirely new remote sensing approach to derive global ABC estimates for both forest and non-forest biomes during the past two decades from satellite passive microwave observations. We estimate a global average ABC of 362 PgC over the period 1998-2002, of which 65% is in forests and 17% in savannahs. Over the period 1993-2012, an estimated −0.07 PgC yr −1 ABC was lost globally, mostly resulting from the loss of tropical forests (−0.26 PgC yr −1 ) and net gains in mixed forests over boreal and temperate regions (+0.13 PgC yr −1 ) and tropical savannahs and shrublands (+0.05 PgC yr −1 ). Interannual ABC patterns are greatly influenced by the strong response of water-limited ecosystems to rainfall variability, particularly savannahs. From 2003 onwards, forest in Russia and China expanded and tropical deforestation declined. Increased ABC associated with wetter conditions in the savannahs of northern Australia and southern Africa reversed global ABC loss, leading to an overall gain, consistent with trends in the global carbon sink reported in recent studies 1,3,9 .Over the past two decades, the terrestrial biosphere has acted as a sink for atmospheric CO 2 , removing on average approximately 2.5 petagrams of carbon per year (PgC yr −1 ): equivalent to 25% of fossil fuel emissions 1-4 . Additional emissions from land-use change reduce the global net land sink to approximately 1.5 PgC yr −1 , with forests playing a dominant role 5 . Monitoring C stock changes over time can be used to determine which ecosystems and processes drive changes in C fluxes and to develop strategies for climate change mitigation. The existing global ABC estimates based on field survey data, such as the recent global synthesis by Pan et al. 5 , provide snapshots in time and are limited to forest ecosystems only. Estimating ABC using satellite remote sensing can provide a more consistent methodology and global coverage 6 . Although offering high spatial resolution, current remote sensing products have limited temporal frequency and record length at the global scale 6-8 .Here, we derive global ABC estimates for all vegetation types for the past two decades using an entirely new approach that uses satellite-based passive microwave data rather than the optical or radar observations used previously. The intensity of natural microwave radiation from the Earth is a function of its temperature, soil moisture and the shielding effect of water in aboveground vegetation biomass, including canopy and woody components 10-12 . The biomass signal is captured in the vegetation optical depth (VOD; refs 13,14). A distinct advantage of passive microwavederived VOD is that it remains sensitive to biomass variations at a ...

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“…The spontaneous withdrawal of croplands in the early 1990s provided the additional C sink that could annually compensate about 36 and 49% of the current (level of 2010) fossil fuel emissions in Russia and Kazakhstan (http://www.iea.org), respectively. This extra C sink is equivalent to~30% of the annual C sink in all Russian forests (Zamolodchikov et al, 2011) and could cover about 18% of the global CO 2 release due to deforestation and other land use changes (Pan et al, 2011).…”

Section: Estimation Of Carbon Budget For Russian Federation and Kazakmentioning

confidence: 99%