A Twenty Year Retrospective on the Forest Carbon Dynamics in Russia D. G. Zamolodchikov, V. I. Grabovskii, and G. N. Kraev Center on the Problems of Ecology and Productivity of Forests, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Profsoyuznaya 84/32, Moscow, 117810 Russia E-mail: dzamolod@cepl.rssi.ru Abstract—A regional forest carbon budget accounting technique based on carbon pools balance with incomes from growing woodstocks and losses from harvesting, fires and other disturbances have been developed. Forest carbon budgets of the Russian administrative units during 1988–2009 have been accounted. The carbon sink to Russian forests have increased from 80 Mt C ´ yr –1 in 1988 to 230–240 Mt C ´ yr –1 in late 2000s. This tendency is explained with the decline in harvesting, which have started in 1990s. European part of Russia was found to have higher areally averaged carbon sink compared with the Asian part. It have been associated with peculiar ways of wildfires governance in these two parts. DOI: 10.1134/S1995425511070022 Keywords: carbon budget, forest resource dynamics, phytomass, dead wood, litter, soil, wood harvesting, wildfires The observed global climate warming induced by anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentration increase in the atmosphere is widely discussed. The number of research concerning assessments of carbon cycle and other climate regulating functions of forests have in- creased. The attention paid to the forest carbon budget could have lead to positive decisions on its inventory. Nevertheless the carbon accounting of Russian forests has still unconformities. Recently published assess- ments of the annual sink to Russian forests varied from 100 to 600 Mt C ´ yr –1 [1–7]. The specified range could lead one to conclusion of insufficient level of scientific understanding of forest carbon budget at regional scale. In other words the actual uncertainties of the assess- ments exceeds their absolute values. Evaluation of the Earth’s surface carbon absorbers is of great theoretical importance. Different ecosystems (e.g., forests, tundra, wetlands, etc.) react to the climate changes uniquely. Given the vast area of Russian Feder- ation, the regulation of the atmospheric greenhouse gases by ground cover is globally significant. Uncer- tainties in spatial or ecosystem attribution of carbon sink amounts inevitably have the global consequences. The forest carbon budget inventory has an important application. Carbon absorbing functions of forests have been respected by the UN Framework convention on Climate Change and Kioto Protocol. The methodology of forest carbon sinks offset is lively argued in the framework of post-Kioto climate agreement negotia- tions. A number of the parties vote for conventional limitations in offsetting forest carbon budget within na- tional greenhouse gases budgets due to uncertainties and variability in independent assessments of forest carbon budget. Remind that Kioto protocol put forward 33 Mt C maximal annual offset of forest carbon sinks in Russia. These limitations prevail from the large-scale activities towards preservation and enhancement of for- est greenhouse gases sinks. There is no need in ex- penses for carbon optimized forest management, because forests sinks exceeds the limits offset by Kioto protocol on Russian national greenhouse gas inventory. Thus, to form the consistent point of view on the val- ues of forest carbon budget in Russia is the urgent re- search task. We resolve it with the complete and transparent description of methods involved for other independent research collectives to verify and criticise. Our objectives are to present the method of regional forest carbon budget accounting (FCBAR) generaliz- ing our recent studies [2, 8–11], and analyze with it the forest carbon dynamics of 1988–2009 in Russian Federation. MATERIALS AND METHODS The FCBAR method implies data from the base in- formational resource on forests in Russia—the State Register of Forest Fund (SRFF) or State Forest Registry (SFR). Since mid-1950s SRFF (currently SFR) is the only data source consequently characterizing species and age structure of forests at local (within forestry en- tities) and federal scales. During 1988–98 SRFF have been updated every 5 years, with detailed electronic da- tabases (DB) and directories being published [12–14]. During 1999–2007 the DB have been updated on an an- nual basis, while only in 2003 was the directory pub- lished [15]. The 2008 edition of the Forestry Code [16] have turned the SRFF to SFR, however the annual up- dating of the information was left. Currently the SRFF ISSN 1995-4255, Contemporary Problems of Ecology, 2011, Vol. 4, No. 7, pp. 706–715. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2011. Original Russian Text © D.G. Zamolodchikov, V.I. Grabovskii, G.N. Kraev, 2011, published in Lesovedenie, 2011, No. 6, pp. 16–28. 706