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Title
The Eurosiberian Transect: an introduction to the experimental region.
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5p91q8qx
Journal
Tellus B, 54(5)
ISSN
0280-6509 1600-0889
Authors
Schulze, E.-D.
Vygodskaya, N. N
Tchebakova, N. M
et al.
Publication Date
2002-11-01
DOI
10.1034/j.1600-0889.2002.01342.x
Copyright Information
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Tellus (2002), 54B, 421–428
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Blackwell Munksgaard, 2002
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TELLUS
ISSN 0280–6509
TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION
The Eurosiberian Transect: an introduction
to the experimental region
By E.-D. SCHULZE
1∗
, N. N. VYGODSKAYA
2
, N. M. TCHEBAKOVA
3
, C. I. CZIMCZIK
1
, D. N. KOZLOV
2
,
J. LLOYD
1
, D. MOLLICONE
4
, E. PARFENOVA
3
, K. N. SIDOROV
2
, A. V. VARLAGIN
2
and C. WIRTH
1
,
1
Max-Planck Institut for Biogeochemistry, PO Box 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany;
2
Sevetsov Institute of
Ecology and Evolution, RAS, Leninsky Prospect 33, 1107071 Moscow, Russia;
3
Institut of Forest, Siberian RAS,
Academgorodoc, 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russia;
4
Department of Forest Science and Environment, University
of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
(Manuscript received 9 July 2001; in final form 5 March 2002)
ABSTRACT
An introduction is given to the geography of Russian forests and to the specific conditions of the study
sites located along the 60
◦
latitude east of Moscow (Fyedorovskoe) near the Ural Mountains (Syktivkar)
and in Central Siberia near the Yennisei river (Zotino). The climatic conditions were similar at all three
sites. The main ecological parameter that changes between European Russia and Siberia is the length of
the growing season (230 d above 0
◦
C NE Moscow to 170 d above 0
◦
C in Central Siberia) and to a lesser
extent precipitation (580 mm NE Moscow to 530 mm in Central Siberia). The experimental sites were
generally similar to the regional conditions, although the Tver region has less forest and more grass-
land than the central forest reserve, and the Komi region has slightly less wetland than the study area.
The Krasnoyarsk region reaches from the arctic ocean to arid central Asia and contains a significant
proportion of non-forest land. The boreal forest of west and east Yennisei differs mainly with respect
to wetlands, which cover almost half of the land area on the west bank. All sites are prone to distur-
bance. Heavy winds and drought or surplus water are the main disturbance factors in European Russia
(a 15–20 yr cycle), and fire is the dominating disturbance factor in Siberia (220–375 yr for stand
replacing fires).
1. Introduction
The Eurosiberian Project was planned to focus on
the boreal forest belt of Eurasia, which covers the area
between about 53 and 67
◦
N from the Atlantic coast of
Norway at 5
◦
E to the Pacific coast at 170
◦
E. The re-
gion is relatively uniform with respect to species cover.
Picea abies of Europe is replaced by Picea obovata in
Finland and the NE of European Russia, which then
∗
Corresponding author.
e-mail: dschulze@bgc-jena.mpg.de
dominates together with Abies alba in the dark conif-
erous taiga of European Russia and Abies sibirica in
Siberia. Dark coniferous taiga occurs with a differ-
ent set of species again in the Amur region. Pinus
sylvestris is the tree species with the largest range of
global distribution for any tree species. It is an early
successional species along the whole region and domi-
nates on nutrient-poor sandy soils and on bogs. In con-
trast, Pinus sibirica is a central Siberian late succes-
sional species forming monotypic stands mainly in wet
sites. The genus Larix occurs with a range of species
in a region almost as broad as that of P. sylvestris,
but it dominates forests mainly on permafrost soils
Tellus 54B (2002), 5
422 E.-D. SCHULZE ET AL.
and in the continental climate of East Siberia (Walter,
1974).The deciduous trees of Betula and Populus are
important throughout the boreal forest belt depend-
ing on disturbance. Betula pendula and B. pubescens
are early successional species in many regions of
European Russia and Siberia. Populus tremula follows
disturbance on nutrient-rich and drained soils.
It is quite clear that it is impossible to cover such a
large geographic range experimentally. Given the fact
that initial information did exist for the East Siberian
Larix forest (Utkin, 1965; Schulze et al., 1995;
Hollinger et al., 1998; Kelliher et al., 1997; 1998),
and that the European region is covered by a number
of experimental networks (Schulze, 2000; Valentini,
2002), the present study concentrates on sites ranging
from European Russia to the Yenisei river in Central
Siberia. These sites are located at the Central Forest
Reserve (56
◦
27
N, 32
◦
57
E) about 300 km northwest
of Moscow; near Syktyvkar ( 61
◦
23
N, 52
◦
17
E) lo-
cated about 400 km East of the Ural Mountains; and
in the Central Yenisei region near Zotino (60
◦
44
N,
89
◦
09
E) a village located about 100 km south of the
inlet of the Podkameniaya Tunguska into the Yenisei.
2. Climatology of the Eurosiberian
boreal forests
In contrast to the European climate, which is dom-
inated by westerly winds in summer, the main wind
Table 1. Comparative overview of climatic conditions and landcover at the three experimental sites
a
Fyedorovskoe Syktivkar Zotino
Position 56
◦
27
N, 32
◦
57
E61
◦
23
N, 52
◦
17
E60
◦
44
N, 89
◦
09
E
Climate VV VL SK Sym Bor
Temperature annual average (
◦
C) 3.9 4.9 0.4 −3.7 −3.8
Highest measured day T 40.8 (1885) 35.3 (1885) 36.1 (1999)
Lowest measured day T −45.7 (1940) −46.6 (1973) −56.0 (1987)
Monthly average max T 19.6 (1972) 22.1 (1985) 21.5 (1988) 21.5 (1988) 21.8 (1967)
Monthly average min T −20.5 (1987) −17.8 (1987) −25.5 (1955) −36.0 (1969)
Precipitation annual average (mm) 629 545 503 530 536
Absolute max (mm) 850 (1953) 877 (1902) 746 (1923) 746 (1923) 745 (1986)
Absolute min (mm) 391 (1963) 289 (1926) 321 (1896) 364 (1938)
Growing season >10
◦
C (d) 127 134 132 93 91
>0
◦
C (d) 218 245 196 168 173
Snow cover (d) 131 207 188 207 207
Index of continentality 55 62 82
a
The weather stations Veliki Luki: VL (1881–1998) and Vyshnii Volochek: VV (1880–1990) were taken as reference for
Fyedorovskoe. Syktivkar weather (Sk) station (1888–1989) was reference for the flight region south of Syktivkar. The stations
Sym: SY (1937–1989) and Bor: BO (1936–1989) are taken as reference for Zotino. Gorchinsky index of continentality k =
(annual temperature amplitude)/sin(latitude).
pattern changes in the Ural region where climate is
dominated by northerly winds from the arctic ocean
in summer and by southerly wind patterns in win-
ter (Myachkova, 1983). This wind pattern continues
across Siberia, and it enhances the continentality of
climate from west to east. The main ecological param-
eter that changes from west to east is the length of the
growing season and climate continentality (Table 1).
Average day temperatures are above 0
◦
C for about
200–230 d in the taiga zone of European Russia and
decrease to about 170 d in central Siberia. Compared
to this change, all other climatic parameters change
relatively little (Fig. 1). Annual average July tem-
peratures are fairly uniform (19 and 20
◦
C) along
the 60
◦
N latitude and highest day temperatures on
record are above 36–40
◦
C, but comparisons are diffi-
cult because of different observation periods. Also,
minimum temperatures are not that different: −45
◦
C has been measured in European Russia, which
is physiologically not so different from −56
◦
Cin
West Siberia. Average rainfall and its range are sim-
ilar, but decrease slightly from European Russia to
West Siberia (600–530 mm). Rainfall decreases fur-
ther towards the east to 100–250 mm in Yakutia. Lo-
cally higher rainfall occurs at the rise of the Cen-
tral Siberian plateau east of the Yenisei (>600 mm).
Orl´ean near Paris served as reference for tropospheric
measurements of marine background. The average an-
nual temperature at Orl´ean was 11
◦
C and rainfall was
723 mm.
Tellus 54B (2002), 5
THE EUROSIBERIAN TRANSECT 423
Fig. 1. Seasonal course of highest and lowest record, and of
median monthly maximum and minimum temperatures of the
weather stations in Velikie Luki (Central European Russia)
and of Bor (Central Siberia).
3. Forest zone
Russia uses a classification of forest land categories
which does not correspond to that used by the FAO
(2000), thus both sets of data are compared in Table 2.
According to Shvidenko and Nilsson (1994), the area
of Russian Forest Fund (in 1993) of 1180.88 million
ha is divided into forest land (886.54 Million ha) and
non-forest land (i.e. mostly unproductive areas such
as bogs, rocks, water reservoirs, and areas of special
designation such as pastures, arable lands in the forest
zone, etc.) covering 294.34 × 10
6
ha. The forest land is
divided into forested area (or closed forests, 763.50 ×
10
6
ha) and unforested areas (areas designated for for-
est but temporarily not covered by forest due to distur-
bances such as fire, dead stands, un-regenerated log-
ging areas, grassy glades, and barrens) of 123.04 ×
10
6
ha in 1993. The total growing stock volume on
forested area is 80.676 × 10
9
m
3
(about 20 Gt C).
The forested area (closed forests) (Table 2) is about
45% of the total Russian territory (Alexeyev and
Birdsey, 1994; Alexeyev et al., 2000).
The European forested area contains about 22% of
the total forest area and 26% of the total growing stock
volume of Russia; 66% of the forested area is located
in East Siberia and in the Far East, carrying 60% of
the growing stock. The total carbon stock of above-
and below-ground phytomass is equivalent to about
28 Gt C (FAO, 2000). The FAO estimates of the phy-
tomass of Russian forests are based on very rough and
aggregated data, which underestimate the phytomass
of the Russian forest by about 15%. Detailed inven-
tory data quantify the phytomass to be about 33 Gt C
for the entire country (Shvidenko et al., 2000). Rus-
sian estimates of phytomss vary by ±2–4% (Alexeyev
et al., 2000; Isaev et al., 1995).
4. Comparison of the study regions
4.1. The Central Forest Biospheric State Reserve
The Central Forest Reserve is located in the Tver
region of Central European Russia, in the southern
taiga sub-zone (Vygodskaya et al., 2001). The region
is part of the Valdai heights, which are the main divide
between the Caspian and the Baltic watersheds in the
pleistocene plain between Belorussia and the Urals,
called the Russian plain. It is a hilly region ranging
between 220 and 280 m a.s.l. with gentle slopes of
non-calcareous loam covering carbonate-containing
morains. The loamy areas lead to podzolic soils and
bogs. Water from the calcareous morains may reach
the soil surface locally. Thus soil type and groundwa-
ter chemistry depend on the nanorelief and result in
a mosaic structure of soils and vegetation. Rivers and
creeks generally originate from bogs. Watersheds are
not well defined.
The Central Forest Reserve was founded in 1931,
and in 2000 it consisted of 245 km
2
core region and a
buffer zone of 430 km
2
. The main part of the Central
Forest Reserve has not been managed in recent history.
Only the southern part was logged in the 1950s, and
this part is presently dominated by Betula and Populus.
The part of the Picea forest is to certain extent a sec-
ondary forest growing on abandoned fields of the 17th
and 18th centuries (Karpachevskii, 1981). The suscep-
tibility of the area to wind may in part result from old
plough horizons. The potential natural vegetation is
most likely a mixed broadleaf/coniferous forest.
Climatologically, the region is located in a transi-
tion between European oceanic and continental cli-
mate. North Atlantic air masses alter in a 3–7 d cycle
with cold polar air masses. Late frost may occur un-
til early June, and early frost by late August. Thus,
a large short-term variability in weather is character-
istic for the entire taiga zone of the Russian Plain.
Tellus 54B (2002), 5
424 E.-D. SCHULZE ET AL.
Table 2. The Russian forest zone
a
Area (10
6
ha)
Total Area Russia 1709.8 100.0%
Total land area 1637.7 95.8%
Forest and other woodlands (FAO) 886.5 51.9%
Forest (FAO) 816.5 47.8%
Forested area (Russian classification) 763.5 44.7%
Other land (FAO) 821.2 48.0%
Ecoregions Area (10
6
ha) Phytomass (10
6
tC)
Forest tundra 108.4 1 640
Boreal forest 508.8 18 940
Mixed forest 13.1 640
Sub-boreal forest 134.5 6 510
Total 764.8 27 730
Alexeyev and Birdsey Shvidenko and Nilsson
Forest area Phytomass Growing stock Net growth
Economic Regions (10
6
ha) (10
6
tC) volume (10
6
m
3
) growth (10
6
m
3
)
European Russia
Prebaltic 0.3 15.6 46.6 1.3
Northern 76.0 2 733.1 7 935.4 114.5
Northwestern (incl. Komi) 10.4 551.8 1 583.9 29.2
Central (incl. Tver) 20.3 1 044.4 3 109.6 77.5
Volgo-Vjatsky 13.3 614.2 1 862.7 48.3
Central-Chrnozemny 1.5 78.6 213.8 7.1
Povolshsky 4.8 221.9 596.8 17.2
Northern Caucasus 3.7 281.2 662.3 13.1
Uralsky 35.8 1 647.2 5 099.8 109.8
Total Europe 166.0 7 188.0 21 110.9 417.1
Asian Russia
West Siberia 90.0 3 401 10 950.3 113.0
East Siberia (incl. Kras.) 234.5 9 587 27 658.2 250.1
Far East 280.5 7 805 20 957.0 185.3
a
Total Area: FAO (2000) and Shvidenko and Nilsson (1994); regions, growing stock volumes (Alexeyev and Birdsey, 1994)
and net stem growth (Shvidenko and Nilsson, 1994).
Temperatures range between an average monthly min-
imum of −20
◦
C in January and a maximum of 20
◦
Cin
July. Precipitation has a 15–20 yr cycle between dry
and wet periods, but rainfall may change even from
year to year between 400 mm in a dry and 800 mm
in a wet year. The rapid change between Atlantic
and polar air masses results in frequent heavy storms.
Heavy windthrow occurs with a periodicity of about
9–15 yr. Despite the general humid climate, periodic
droughts are characteristic in summer when continen-
tal air masses from the SE reach the study region.
The vegetation (Table 3) represents a transition be-
tween the southern taiga (with nemoral species such
as Tilia, Acer and Ulmus) and the boreal mixed forest
of conifers and small leafed species (Betula and Pop-
ulus). Dominant species on waterlogged and on well
drained sites (39% of the area) is Picea abies and the
hybrid P. fennica (P. obovata × abies). Small-leaved
deciduous forests of Betula and Populus cover 32% of
the area. Pinus (9%) is confined mainly to bogs, and
Alnus (2% of the area) follows the flood plain of
creeks (Karpov, 1973, Miniaev and Konechnaia, 1976;
Karpov and Shaposhnilkov, 1983).
Main disturbance factors which caused secondary
successional forest were windthrow and logging in the
1950s. A larger fire occurred in 1939. In 1990, 31–50%
Tellus 54B (2002), 5
