As part of Russia’s implementation of the Paris agreement, original plans and strategies suggested targets for net absorption in managed forests between 620 – 2500 mln tonnes of CO2e by 2030 (Romanovskaya, 2023). She suggests that 1.2bln tonnes CO2e by 2050 is still possible but needs restructuring of forest management systems. Also identification and validation…
Category: peatlands
Carbon update from the Ladoga polygon
The Ladoga polygon is part of a network of carbon monitoring sites, with Ladoga providing data for this north-west region of Russia. It stores large volumes of carbon in soils, approx 208 tC/ha which is the largest volume outside of permafrost affected soil. The region has not had any significant agricultural activity for over 40…
How West Siberia’s atmosphere may help prevent anti-microbial resistance
Russian scientists have been studying proteins and particles in atmosphere aerosols for over 20 years. Generally, microorganisms over marshlands are less well studied. The researchers wanted to investigate bioaerosols in the atmosphere over Vasyugan marshes in Siberia, approximately 52,000 km2. They wanted to measure the concentration of proteins and culturable microorganisms. The mix of forest,…
Exploring the ‘carbon polygon’ of Ladoga
Sustainable soil management (SSM) initiatives review organic matter in soil and carbon sequestration to understand how best to mitigate carbon and methane emissions, improving mitigation of climate change. In Russia, the government established a ‘Carbon Polygons’ project assessing and monitoring carbon in different ecosystems and biomes, especially boreal forest regions. The researchers wanted to assess…
Digging deeper and deeper into the Lake Chany basin
Lake Chany in Western Siberia has historically been a shallow lake, approximately 2 metres deep and a 2.2 thousand km2 area. It is saline which is similar to other lakes in the region due to intensive evaporation after rain and run off. This theoretically increases the affect of climate change in water levels and surrounding…
Mounds of mires
Researchers from Tuvan and Tomsk universities wanted to understand the impact of climate change on palsa mires which are frozen mounds of peat bogs found in the highlands of southern Siberia. They are caused by permafrost and can be several metres high and up to several hundred km2 in area. When reading existing research they…
Permafrost and cryogenic monitoring in the western Russian Arctic.
Permafrost is currently analysed by reviewing temperatures at different layers compared with air and ground surface temperatures, depth of freezing and thawing, as well as overall coverage including snow and vegetation. Mean annual air temperature (MAAT) and mean annual ground temperatures (MAGT) are a widely used source of analysis with the practical measurements being completed…
Silent soldiers of the environmental protection: the issues and challenges of the Russian peatlands.
Peatlands are a key element of environmental sustainability and have a special place in the context of climate change. However, their importance is still underrated in Russia. We discussed the current challenges with Dr Tatiana Minayeva, the leader of the Russian peatland restoration project at Wetlands International. How did you become professionally involved in climate change…
Russian Climate Research 