Russian forests are prone to numerous disturbances such as wild fires, insect
invasions, diseases, windthrow, industrial transformation, air pollution, etc.
Annually, from 5 to 25 million hectare of forested areas are significantly
affected by different types of human-induced and natural disturbances. The
inter-seasonal variability of extent and severity of disturbances are high.
Disturbances cause substantial ecological, social and economic losses, and
impact productivity, vitality and functioning of forest ecosystems. An absolute
majority of succession dynamics of Russian forests is driven by disturbances.
It is very likely that expected climate change will dramatically increase extent
and severity disturbances in Northern Eurasia forests.
Forest fire
About 60% of the Russian forests is protected against forest fires. The State
Forest Guard and Specialized Regional Units of "Rosavialesookhrana" (forest
fire control by means of aircraft) together with the local administrative authorities
and local population provide protection of forest against fire. About 15,000-35,000
forest fires covering on average 3,000,000 - 7,000,000 ha occur annually. Data
of official statistics refer only to protected areas and are incomplete and biased.
In the years with a medium level of fire risk, the Forest Guard provided a sufficient
level of fire control. In the extremely dry years, which recur every 10-15 years
over large forest regions, fires run out of control and may become catastrophic.
During the last such dry years (1998 and 2003), vegetation fires covered, respectively,
11.5 million ha and 21.5 million ha of Asian Russia. According to remote-sensing
data, the long term annual average of timber losses is estimated to be 400 -
500 million m^3.
More details are in:
Fire in Russian forests.
The following data is provided documenting forest fire in Russia:
Burnt
area fire scars/hotspots statistics between 1996-2006 (remote sensing
data for all forests; data of the Center of Space Monitoring of
V.N. Sukachev Institute of Forests, SB RAS).
GIS datasets of hot spots and burnt areas between 2004-2006, determined from
remote sensing data:
| Map | GIS for years: | 2004 2005 2006 | Database Description
Pests and diseases
Of biotic disturbances, outbreaks of dangerous insects and diseases
are the second most important driver of current state and dynamics
of Russian forests. The officially reported total area of forests
affected by insects and diseases during the last 15 years on average comprised
from about 5 million ha to above 10 million ha. The opinion of Russian scientists
and forest professionals is that the damage caused by insects and
diseases is of the same magnitude of that caused by fire. Acceleration of
the impacts of pests and diseases on forest ecosystems is observed during
last decades. The major reasons of this are increasing anthropogenic pressure
on forests and ongoing climatic change. Reliability and completeness
of data on biotic disturbances are similar to those discussed for fire.
Particularly incomplete are data for remote sparsely populated regions.
Official data on areas affected by insects and diseases in forests
managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources are in:
Area
of forests affected by Insects and diseases in 1988-2005.
More information are in: Protection
of forests against pests and diseases.
Forests killed by disturbances
The Russian forest statistics report areas of dead forests as an
utmost results of the impacts of disturbances. The completeness
and accuracy of these data are unknown:
Areas
of dead forests due to disturbances.
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