The Russian forest as an element in stabilizing global climatic change

Conference · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States)

OSTI ID:7161917

Speranskaya, O A ^[1]

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1. Ecoforest, Moscow (Russian Federation)

Russia's forests occupy nearly 1.8 billion hectares, almost one quarter of the worlds woodland. The total stock of standing timber now comprises 74.6 billion cubic meters, with an annual growth of 844 million cubic meters. The role of such large forested areas in maintaining climate balance is well established. Among the macro-level climatic elements that major deforestation can influence are the greenhouse effect, albedo, amount of rainfall, surface temperature, and the hydrologic cycle. As a result, deforestation has far-reaching implications to existing ecosystems. In this paper, estimates are made of the effect of forest loss from forest fires (up to 1 mill. hectares), atmospheric pollution (up to 600,000 hectares), and overlogging (1.2 mill. hectares) on major climate elements. Interactions at the regional level and implications of the changing dynamics of these sources of deforestation are explored. The need for new protective strategies, including application of forest management principles and mapping of ecological relationships in large forested areas, are also discussed.

• OSTI ID: 7161917
• Report Number(s): CONF-940894--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America; (United States) Journal Volume: 75:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

560400* -- Other Environmental Pollutant Effects
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ASIA
CLIMATIC CHANGE
DEFORESTATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EUROPE
FORESTS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
USSR