Abstract
Today, changes in terrestrial ecosystems—forests, marshes, tundras, meadows, steppes—as a result of increasing anthropogenic pressures and climate warming, transform the evolutionary structure of Russia’s vegetation cover on a large scale, which increases environmental and economic risks. A comprehensive study of all the components and mechanisms of the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems will allow us to develop an approach to managing natural resources under conditions of their intensive exploitation, preserve the gene pool and biodiversity, and determine a nature management strategy. Under the current climate changes, it is the condition and normal functioning of land ecosystems that have become strategically important factors of stability, providing the human environment with basic resources (air, water, food), and of Russia’s economic growth.
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Notes
Researchers can easily access model calculations of climate change, formed in 2013–2014 as part of the international project CMIP5 in preparation for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The CMIP5 project provides representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios, suggesting climatic changes in the near (up to 2035) and long term (up to 2100). Based on the forecasts, the scenarios received standardized notation: RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP8.5.
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On December 10, 2019, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences held a meeting on the topic “Profound Changes in Terrestrial Ecosystems in Russia in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities.” The main report was made by Pavel V. Krestov, director of the Botanical Garden–Institute of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the other rapporteurs were Elena K. Khlestkina, Dr. Sci. (Biol.), director of the Vavilov All-Russia Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, and RAS Corresponding Member Natalia V. Lukina, director of the RAS Center for Ecology and Forest Productivity. Krestov began with the famous quote by Leonardo da Vinci: “We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” A long time has passed since then. Now, of course, we know more about the “soil underfoot.” Terrestrial ecosystems are our home, which today, according to the participants in the meeting, are rapidly changing under the impact of climate and anthropogenic factors, unfortunately, not for the better. To understand the reason for these changes and to propose measures for the conservation and rational use of the richest natural resources that our country has at its disposal is the goal that the meeting participants themselves set.
Herald of the RAS publishes reports presented to the academic audience, as well as discussion materials, with the participation of D.V. Gel’tman, Dr. Sci. (Biol.), RAS Corresponding Member Yu.V. Plugatar’; V.P. Upelniek, Cand. Sci. (Biol.); I.V. Shmakov; E.V. Zhuravleva, Dr. Sci. (Agriculture); A.A. Sirin, Dr. Sci. (Biol.); Yu.O. Lakhtikov; and RAS Academicians A.V. Adrianov, S.V. Rozhnov, Yu.Yu. Dgebuadze, and G.G. Matishov.
Translated by B. Alekseev
RAS Corresponding Member Pavel Vital’evich Krestov is Director of the Botanical Garden–Institute, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS). Kirill Aleksandrovich Korznikov, Cand. Sci. (Biol.), is a Leading Researcher of the Botanical Garden–Institute FEB RAS. Dmitrii Evgen’evich Kislov, Cand. Sci. (Phys.–Math.), is a Senior Researcher of the Botanical Garden–Institute FEB RAS.
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Krestov, P.V., Korznikov, K.A. & Kislov, D.E. Profound Changes in Terrestrial Ecosystems in Russia in the 21st Century. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 90, 291–297 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331620030090
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331620030090