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Majority of undisturbed ecosystems in Russia captures greenhouse gases

According to an expert, man-caused disturbances, such as clear cutting of forests, dramatically shift the forest ecosystem carbon balance to carbon dioxide emission to atmosphere

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. The greater portion of undisturbed Russian ecosystem captures carbon dioxide from atmosphere, which changes in case of various natural disasters and clear cutting, the press service of the RITM Carbon consortium told TASS.

"The majority of undisturbed ecosystems in Russia is functioning as net sinks of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with the absorption range from 80 to 240 grams of carbon per square meter annually. Climate changes, variations of weather conditions from year to year and natural disturbances (fires, windfalls, pest-damaged deadwood, permafrost degradation and so on) change the carbon balance of ecosystems and lead to trends and fluctuations of carbon balance components. Man-caused disturbances, such as clear cutting of forests, dramatically shift the forest ecosystem carbon balance to carbon dioxide emission to atmosphere," researcher Olga Kuricheva said, cited in the statement.

Greenhouse gas flows are monitored using the turbulent pulsations method under the procedure adopted in the Fluxnet monitoring network. The majority of stations is located in forests and swamps of middle and southern taiga.