Abstract Extensive wildfires and logging have affected the Russian boreal forests in recent decades. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests are widespread in Russia and are one of the most disturbed tree species in Siberia. However, the effects of disturbance on soil CO2 efflux in the vast Siberian forests are still poorly understood. We used the LI…
Tag: Siberia
Green infrastructure – what’s growing or not – in urban subarctic Western Siberia
Abstract The northern part of western Siberia, which comprises the Khanty-Mansiysk and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Districts of Tyumen Oblast, Russia, is one of the most urbanized areas exposed to the subarctic climate. Here, we study the specific socio-natural interactions affected by the development of urban green infrastructure in such climatic zones as middle and northern taiga,…
Mapping Yamal reindeer dietary preferences
In full (EN) Abstract:Large herbivores regulate ecosystem structure and functioning across Earth’s biomes, but vegetation community responses to herbivory depend on complex interactions involving the timing and intensity of herbivory pressure and other, often abiotic, controls on vegetation. Consequently, reindeer-driven vegetation transitions in the Arctic occur heterogeneously between and even within landscapes. Here, we employed…
Evaluating carbon emissions and removals from Russia’s trade in harvested wood products
Abstract Harvested wood products (HWP) are carbon reservoirs that remain underutilized in decarbonization policies due to the superficiality of carbon flux estimates in international trade in forest products. This paper focuses on the emissions and removals associated with Russia’s foreign trade in HWP. For the first time, we provide estimates of these carbon fluxes for…
Pleistocene Park creators identify 3000 yr old Siberian weather using mummified wood
Nikita and Sergey Zimov of Pleistocene Park in Sakha Republic of Russia, co-authored a study reconstructing Holocene weather conditions. This will help predict the effects of climate change in today’s Russian Arctic. Even Siberian permafrost regions have seasonal variation, especially summer and winter cycles. Mean average annual temperatures and general mean average conditions were previously…
What happens to the forest floor after Siberian wildfires?
The main tree species in the Siberian taiga are larch, Scots pine, fir, spruce, Siberian pine and birch. Lightning is more a frequent cause of wildfires in northern Siberia with anthropogenic activity causing wildfires further south, however central and eastern Siberia have been more affected overall by wildfires. They decrease soil quality (organic matter, structure,…
Siberian honeybees holding their own
Some tourists don’t take the Transbaikal Siberian train. They fly in and like it so much they want to stay and mingle with the locals. But what do resident bees really think? Zoology researchers from Tomsk State University decided to find out. Bee threats are well researched – pests, pathogens, fertilisers, habitat destruction and Russian…
How is climate change affecting public health in Russia?
The researchers reviewed 1740 papers and reports which show increasing interest in the impact of climate change on public health in Russia: They were stimulated by the World Climate Change Conference held in Moscow in 2003 with the support of the United Nations and other international organizations, including WHO. The same year, the first review…
How Krasnoyarsk could transition from coal to pellet heating
Coal has been used as a primary energy fuel across Siberia but in recent years this has been changing. Finding an optimum balance between transitioning from coal, increasing production of wood pellets but not at the expense of reducing carbon sequestration is an ongoing challenge. In 2012 the national Ecology project launched a range of…
What is in defrosted Russian Arctic ice?
Carbon deposits in thawing permafrost include widely reported methane gases released as bubbles and present in craters across Siberia. Scientists wanted to find out more about the greenhouse emissions and what was in the defrosted ground ice including dissolved organic matter (DOM) and particulate organic matter (POM). They studied four locations across the Russian arctic…
Russian Climate Research 