Carbon stock and deposition in phytomass of the Russian forests

Russian forests occupy an area of 771 Mha with a wood volume of 81.6 × 10⁹ m³. In this paper we estimate the carbon (C) storage and annual C deposition in living vegetation for stands of different age groups according to information in the Russian National Forest Inventory (NFI). Conversion of root C storage into phytomass was based on phytomass/storage ratios calculated from data from 1900 test areas in the different forest regions of Russia. We developed these conversion ratios for different phytomass fractions, namely: stems, branches, roots and foliage, for different forest forming species. Of the total forest area (771 Mha), C storage in the living phytomass is 35.07 Pg C. Total annual C deposition in forest vegetation is estimated at 213.2 Tg C. We considered the role of the main forest forming species in the C cycle of the forest vegetation taking into account the actual structure of the Russian forests.