According to the website of Roslesinforg, test sites for calculating the soil carbon volume will be arranged in 19 regions of the country. The works will be performed within the framework of the government project, the Unified National System for Monitoring Climatically Active Substances. Measurements of this nature will be carried out in Russia for the first time ever, said Pavel Chashchin, Director at Roslesinforg.
The national system for monitoring climatically active substances began to be developed last year by decree of the President of Russia. Monitoring data will form the framework of a national monitoring system for climatically active substances that require state registration. For now, Russian experts operate with climate data collected by other countries.
Once the works are completed in 2030, the data obtained will form the basis of the national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas absorption, constituting the international climate reporting.
Six consortia were formed to create the unified system. Roslesinforg is involved in one of the consortia.
This year, to implement the goals of this large-scale innovative project, 30 branches of Roslesinforg will lay 120 test sites in Tver Oblast, Vologda Oblast, Kirov Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Omsk Oblast, Irkutsk Oblast, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Kurgan Oblast, Amur Oblast and Tomsk Oblast, in Zabaykalsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai and Primorsky Krai, as well as Bashkortostan, Buryatia, Yakutia, Karelia, and the Republic of Komi.
In total, Roslesinforg will have created over 1,000 test sites by 2030.
“A test site is a square 2*2 km land plot with an area of 400 ha. At each test site, 101 circular platforms will be laid, where the living ground cover, young growth and undergrowth, brushwood, coarse woody debris, and stumps will be described, tree heights and diameters measured and their sanitation status checked,” said Pavel Chashchin.
Soil samples will be collected at each test site to determine the carbon content. The works at one test site will take about a month.
“Similar studies of the carbon content in forest soil were conducted over 50 years ago. Work of this scale will be carried out in Russia for the first time and will continue until 2030,” Pavel Chashchin added.
Details of the characteristics of forests growing at test sites, along with the data of the national forest inventory conducted by Roslesinforg will be used to create a system for recording data on the flows of climatically active substances and the carbon budget in forests and other terrestrial ecosystems. Implementation of this project will make it possible to develop scenarios for decarbonization of economic sectors, as well as programs to combat desertification in the regions of the country.