The ICI RAS estimated the carbon stock in the forests of Russia for the first decades of the XXI century. This is stated in the message of the Institute.
Estimates of the carbon reserves of Russian forests in 2001-2021 were made on the basis of satellite remote sensing data, selected ground-based observations and models.
According to the results of the research, the carbon stock in the biomass of forests in 2021 amounted to 55.8 billion tons, the share of carbon stock in the phytomass of trees was 73.7%, in the phytomass of living ground cover — 11.3% and in the mortmass (dead matter) — 14.9%.
In addition, analyzing the time series of data on forest carbon stocks, the researchers found that its value for 2020-2021 increased by 7.8%, and the average rate of increase was 210.5 million tons per year.
In the course of the work, a map was also obtained, with the help of which it is possible to identify territories with positive and negative dynamics of carbon in forests. The decrease in carbon reserves is mainly due to destructive factors: logging, fires and other phenomena.