According to various estimates, there are anywhere from several hundred to a thousand initiatives for the protection, planting and reproduction of forests in Russia with a declared environmental effect. Russia has enormous potential for generating carbon units through forest climate projects. However, this opportunity is practically unused. One of the reasons for such low development is the lack of a methodological basis for forest climatic projects. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to analyse the main methodologies used for the calculation, verification and certification of forest management projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration. This article examined forest management projects that have achieved certification under Verra's Verified Carbon Standard, the world's leading voluntary carbon markets program. The methodologies classification was carried out according to the types of activities involved in the projects: 1) reforestation and afforestation; 2) forest management improvements; 3) reducing the emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. This paper contributes to a detailed analysis of the methodologies used for calculating the forest climatic projects in the world and identifying the relevant methodologies that can be used to calculate the carbon units for forest climatic projects in Russia. Also presented are the universal recommendations for reporting forest climate projects.
The article presents data on the accumulation of heavy metals in calcic chernozems, as well as in the leaves and needles of certain woody plant species: white poplar (Populus alba L.) and boxelder maple (Acer negundo L.), Crimean pine (Pinus nigra var. pallasiana D. Don) and Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), growing on the territory of the deciduous and coniferous trees nursery of the Southern Federal University’s Botanical Garden. The calculated values of concentration coefficients (Kc) for soils under deciduous and coniferous trees indicate a low level of soil contamination. Both deciduous and coniferous species exhibit a barrier mechanism for the entry of heavy metals, characterized by selectivity with respect to chemical elements, which is shown through the coefficients of biological absorption of heavy metals. According to the accumulation intensity, heavy metals in deciduous species can be arranged in the following series: Zn Pb Cu, while in coniferous species the sequence was found to be Zn ≈ Cu Pb. In the accumulation of metals by deciduous trees, the participation of the leaf surface is more significant, hence the inversion of lead and copper in the series of metals accumulation by deciduous trees, caused by the of lead particles being airborne and partially collected by the leaves’ surface.
The dynamics of forest growth on agricultural lands has been studied since the 1990s, which was the starting point of a massive reduction in their cultivation intensity. The total area of the overgrown agricultural land in the Perm Territory reached 58.8% of the total area of agricultural land as of 1985. The boundaries of the forested lands were recorded using remote sensing methods and the archival satellite images of medium spatial resolution. The dynamics analysis was carried out within the flat part of the Perm Territory, taking into account the soil regions’ boundaries. It has been established that the main natural factors of lands differentiation in terms of the scale and rate of their withdrawal from agricultural use are the small scale or uneven terrain of separate agricultural lands, making it less accessible for the agricultural machines, and differences in soil fertility. The least fertile soils, as well as the most difficult to cultivate, were the first to become susceptible to forest overgrowth. The more fertile soils were reforested later, as agricultural activity declined.
In view of actively discussed intensification of forest management, decreasing areas of natural forests and associated biological diversity, understanding the mechanisms of biogeocenoses recovery after disturbances is becoming more and more relevant. We studied the successional dynamics of middle taiga forest communities after first clear cut as compared to the natural dynamics of primeval forest communities in the control plots. Our specific objectives were to: 1) compare growing stock of forest stands (total values, distribution by tree species, variation during the observation period); 2) identify distribution of trees number and growing stock by diameter; 3) evaluate the indicators of stand productivity (annual growth increment); 4) describe the dynamics of tree species composition in the harvested forest stands. The results rely on the long-term permanent plot records. The growing stock and the number of trees in primeval stands weren’t constant over the observation period. Natural disturbances caused by strong winds contributed to a significant fluctuation in the number of trees and growing stock of some stands. The growing stock of stands recovering after felling in many cases becomes comparable to the stock of primeval forest stands by the age of 50 years. At certain periods, in some primeval and harvested forest stands, there is a similarity in the diameter distribution of growing stock and the number of trees caused by disturbances of similar severity — clear cut or windthrow. The productivity of middle-aged forest stands was significantly higher than that of primeval stands. Many first time clear cut forest stands were characterized by the dominance of deciduous species. Nevertheless, conifers also had a significant share in most tree stands on the account of preserved spruce undergrowth and seeding from the neighboring tree stands. Our results can be used for developing optimal forest management scenarios and restoration programmes for forest ecosystem services in managed forests.
The issues of diagnosing tree growth in a plantation are of a significant scientific and practical interest. The purpose of this research is to substantiate the use of the indicator “tree height at 10 years of age” to diagnose their subsequent growth and productivity in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) forest crops. Seventy-year-old spruce monocultures are chosen as objects for the study. Model trees are chosen on trial plots (TPs) using step-by-step proportional representation. After cross-cutting, they were subjected to a complete analysis of the trunk, and, as a result, the height of the tree at 10 years of age and the height, diameter, and volume of the trunk at 70 years of age are calculated. It has been established that, with age in spruce forest plantations, some of the trees that started off stronger may eventually lose their ranking positions, while the initially weaker trees, on the contrary, can rise up through the ranks. At the same time, the more average trees in the plantation remain at the center of such a process; according to all three inventory indicators (height, diameter, and the volume of the trunk), their position becomes the most stable with age. Thus, the height at 10 years of age can be considered a diagnostic sign indicating the further growth of trees in forest plantations.
