Carbon dioxide emissions and net primary production of Russian terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract

 Determination of the C balance is of considerable importance when forecasting climate and environmental changes. Soil respiration and biological productivity of ecosystems (net primary production; NPP) are the basic components of the terrestrial C cycle. In this study, a previously made assessment of the annual CO₂ flux from Russian soils was improved upon. CO₂ emissions from Russian soils during the growing period were shown to represent, on average, 53–82% of the annual CO₂ flux from Russian soils. The total annual CO₂ flux from Russian soils was estimated at 4.50 Gt C (C source). The NPP of Russian ecosystems was estimated at 4.81 Gt C year^–1 (C sink). Our calculations showed values of CO₂ emissions and the C sink to be very close. This shows that, in general, terrestrial ecosystems are under steady state.