Verified estimates of wildfire area and related carbon emissions in territories of Russia are reported for the period of 1998-2010. It is shown that the average burnt area is estimated to be at 8.23 million hectares per year (uncertainty ±9.0%, confidence interval 0.9), and carbon emissions-121 Tg C yr -1 (±23%), with a significant interannual variability of these indicators. A quantitative characteristic of fire emissions by species is reported. Forests are a source of three quarters of all carbon emissions caused by wildfires. A significant acceleration of fire regimes is expected during the 21st century as a result of climate change in the country.

The most comprehensive dataset of in situ destructive sampling measurements of forest biomass in Eurasia have been compiled from a combination of experiments undertaken by the authors and from scientific publications. Biomass is reported as four components: live trees (stem, bark, branches, foliage, roots); understory (above- and below ground); green forest floor (above- and below ground); and coarse woody debris (snags, logs, dead branches of living trees and dead roots), consisting of 10,351 unique records of sample plots and 9,613 sample trees from ca 1,200 experiments for the period 1930–2014 where there is overlap between these two datasets. The dataset also contains other forest stand parameters such as tree species composition, average age, tree height, growing stock volume, etc., when available. Such a dataset can be used for the development of models of biomass structure, biomass extension factors, change detection in biomass structure, investigations into biodiversity and species distribution and the biodiversity-productivity relationship, as well as the assessment of the carbon pool and its dynamics, among many others.

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth’s ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (AGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. AGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world’s forests. All plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS-based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities.

Climate change continues to threaten forests and their ecosystem services while substantially altering natural disturbance regimes. Land cover changes and consequent management entail discrepancies in carbon sequestration provided by forest ecosystems and its accounting. Currently there is a lack of sufficient and harmonized data for Ukraine that can be used for the robust and spatially explicit assessment of forest provisioning and regulation of ecosystem services. In the frame of this research, we established an experimental polygon (area 45 km2) in Northern Ukraine aiming at estimating main forest carbon stocks and fluxes and determining the impact caused by natural disturbances and harvest for the study period of 2010–2015. Coupled field inventory and remote sensing data (RapidEye image for 2010 and SPOT 6 image for 2015) were used. Land cover classification and estimation of biomass and carbon pools were carried out using Random Forest and k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) method, respectively. Remote sensing data indicates a ca. 16% increase of carbon stock, while ground-based computations have shown only a ca. 1% increase. Net carbon fluxes for the study period are relatively even: 5.4 Gg C·year−1 and 5.6 Gg C C·year−1 for field and remote sensing data, respectively. Stand-replacing wildfires, as well as insect outbreaks and wind damage followed by salvage logging, and timber harvest have caused 21% of carbon emissions among all C sources within the experimental polygon during the study period. Hence, remote sensing data and non-parametric methods coupled with field data can serve as reliable tools for the precise estimation of forest carbon cycles on a regional spatial scale. However, featured land cover changes lead to unexpected biases in consistent assessment of forest biophysical parameters, while current management practices neglect natural forest dynamics and amplify negative impact of disturbances on ecosystem services.

The aim of the research was to study the features of accumulation of heavy metals by assimilation apparatus of coniferous and deciduous arboreous plants. The research identified excess of factual concentrations for Arsenic in mining rock in relation to values stated in IPC (indicative permissible concentrations). It is stated that the metals can be divided into three groups according to their absolute content in unit of foliage biomass. The element of excessive concentration is Mn, medium concentration is characteristic for Pb and Zn and low concentration is observed for Sb, Cr, As, Cu, Ni and Sn. Calculation of coefficient of biological accumulation of the metals under research has shown its high values for Crimean pine. The data presented for Black locust indicate low values of coefficient of biological accumulation, which is best noticeable for Chromium, Antimony and Tin. It is determined that a small amount of Sb and Sn are a subject to uptake by Black locust leaves, whilst for Crimean pine needles, Sb and As are characterised by the lowest inflow. The average content of lead is 209.11 kg·ha−1 for Crimean pine in all age groups of trees, whilst for Black locust, this index is only 15.52 kg·ha−1, which is 13.5 times less. Zinc accumulation is better performed by Black locust leaves, and it gradually decreases with increasing age. No definite trend of redistribution and subsequent accumulation of copper depending on tree species and age was found.

During December 2020, a crowdsourcing campaign to understand what has been driving tropical forest loss during the past decade was undertaken. For 2 weeks, 58 participants from several countries reviewed almost 115 K unique locations in the tropics, identifying drivers of forest loss (derived from the Global Forest Watch map) between 2008 and 2019. Previous studies have produced global maps of drivers of forest loss, but the current campaign increased the resolution and the sample size across the tropics to provide a more accurate mapping of crucial factors leading to forest loss. The data were collected using the Geo-Wiki platform (www.geo-wiki.org) where the participants were asked to select the predominant and secondary forest loss drivers amongst a list of potential factors indicating evidence of visible human impact such as roads, trails, or buildings. The data described here are openly available and can be employed to produce updated maps of tropical drivers of forest loss, which in turn can be used to support policy makers in their decision-making and inform the public.

Sytnyk, S., Lovynska, V., Lakyda, I., 2017. Foliage biomass qualitative indices of selected forest forming tree species in Ukrainian Steppe. Folia Oecologica, 44: 38-45.Our study objective was research on the assimilation component of aboveground biomass of trees and its correlation with mensurational indices of trees (age, diameter and height) in stands of the main forest forming species in the Ukrainian Northern Steppe zone -Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) and Robinia pseudoacacia L. (Black locust). The research was carried out in forest stands subordinated to the State Agency of Forest Resources of Ukraine. We used experimental data collected on sample plots established during years 2014-2016. The main research results prove that the foliage share in the tree greenery biomass structure had a wide range of values. For both investigated species, a positive correlation was found between the dry matter content in the tree foliage and the tree age, height and diameter. The foliage share in tree greenery biomass decreased with increasing mensurational index values. Correlation analysis revealed linear relationships between the mensurational indices and the discussed aboveground live biomass parameters. The closest correlation was observed between the stand age, mean stand diameter, mean stand height and dry matter content in the foliage.

Development of renewable energy production is one of the main directions of decarbonizing the Ukraine’s energy sector as well as the forestry sector. Increase in woody biomass utilization efficiency at producing energy, alongside with securing the proper level of technological processes and technical equipment, also requires a reliable information support toolbox that would facilitate managerial decisions. An important constituent of this toolbox is represented by the regional assessments of energy function of forest plant communities. The information basis of the research is formed by the information from the industrial database of IA “Ukrderzhlisproekt”, which contains the detailed biometric characteristics of the stands in the studied region, as well as by a system of mathematical models for quantitative assessment of foersts’ live biomass and dead organic matter. As a result, the quantitative values of the total energy content in live biomass and daed organic matter of Zhytomyr Polissia’s forests were determined. The total amount of energy accumulated in vegetal biomass of the region's forests is 3035.7 PJ, which corresponds to 100.2 million tons of conventional fuel. At the same time, the share of the total energy content in dead organic matter is 11.1 %. The structure of energy content in vegetal biomass in the region is dominated by pine stands, which accumulate more than 60 % of the energy of forests of Zhytomyr region, including 70.8 % - in live biomass of tree trunks. More than 40 % of energy is accumulated in vegetal biomass of stands of I site index class, which mainly grow in fairly infertile forest growth conditions. In the general structure of energy content in dead organic matter (336.2 PJ) more than 60 % belongs to forest litter (212.8 PJ which is not considered a source of renewable energy), standing dead trees 12.3 % (41.3 PJ), dry branches – 17.8 % (close to 60 PJ). The results obtained in the course of the research will serve as an information background for the formation of a strategy for development of forest bioenergy in Zhytomyr region.