Volga Carbon

Participants

Kazan State Agrarian University

The main type of landscape: hair-bearing linden with spruce and oak on sod-podzolic soils, located on alluvial- delluvial Quaternary deposits of the third terrace of large rivers. Sod-podzolic soils on alluvial-deluvial deposits

Tasks

Set up regular meteorological observations and the transmission of urgent meteorological data

Set up regular monitoring of the fluxes of the main greenhouse gases and the parameters of photosynthesis and plant/ soil respiration. Study the sequestration potential of natural phytocenoses

Adapt the existing and develop new Bachelor’s, Master’s and postgraduate programs for training specialists in measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations and calculating GHG emission and sequestration rates. Knowledge dissemination on decarbonization

Organize and carry out international workshops and conferences

Assessment of the carbon balance constituents

Long-term meteorological data sets have been analyzed and interpolated; field observations with available instruments have been initiated in the territories adjacent to the measurement supersite

Preliminary soil studies have been carried out, soil profiles extracted and characterized, and the main physical and chemical parameters of the humus horizons evaluated. The results of a long-term experiment on the decomposition rate of organic matter in forest ecosystems have been obtained

Data have been obtained on the emission and uptake of carbon dioxide, as well as water evaporation, from leaf surfaces of various plant species (the main edificators of forest ecosystems)

Inventory lists of flora and mycobiota have been compiled, and species of wood-destroying fungi revised

Research results

The generalization of long-term meteorological data has been carried out, field meteorological observations with available instruments have been initiated directly near the supersite territories

Preliminary soil studies have been carried out

The description of the soil cross-section has been carried out and the main physical and chemical parameters of the humus horizon estimated

A consecutive data set from a long-term experiment on the rate of decomposition of organic matter in forest ecosystems has been obtained

Data on the release and absorption of carbon dioxide, water vapor from the leaf surface of plants of different species (the main edifiers of the forest ecosystem) have been obtained

Inventory lists of flora and mycobiota have been obtained. The species composition of wood-destroying fungi has been separately verified

International integration

University of Missouri School of Natural Resources – Lectures by Professor Anthony R. Lupo, workshops and a school on large-scale atmospheric and climate dynamics and climate change

University of Göttingen, Germany — meetings and workshops on carbon sequestration in soils by Professor Ya. Kuzyakov

Education and training

The following course modules have been developed for the BSc courses «Ecology and Nature Management», «Soil Science», «Hydrometeorology» and the MSc courses «Environmental Safety and Management in the area of environmental protection», «System ecology and modeling» and «Rational use of soils and land management»:

• «Global challenges and climate policy»
• «Government policy in a changing climate»
• «Environmental economics and climate agenda»
• «Accounting and control of greenhouse gases at industrial and agricultural enterprises»
• «Sequestration of greenhouse gases by ecosystems»
• «Methods of monitoring and modeling of carbon dioxide transport in the atmosphere»
• «Modeling of global environmental processes»

The above-mentioned teaching areas have also been updated for the summer field practice, and now they contain studies of monitoring strategies at carbon measurement supersites

Summer schools in the KFU astronomical observatory, on the «Elabuga» site of the children’s health camp «Burevestnik» in the republican summer camp «The Biosphere»

Topics of the educational agenda

• Environmental Science is the science of human habitat. What is happening to our habitat?
• Nothing comes from nothing and goes nowhere. How our lives affect our planet.
• Biodiversity and global climate change
• Carbon measurement supersites and farms: from plant physiology to economics and politics.
• Green biotechnologies

A new topic for PhD research has been approved: «Evaluation of the evapotranspiration flux and its regressional relationship with the sap flow in woody vegetation»

The program of the advanced training course for employees of industrial enterprises «Climate projects as a tool to offset greenhouse gas emissions» is being developed

Expected outputs

Assessment of intra-annual dynamics of vegetation biomass. Species composition of terrestrial ecosystems, classification with a view of sequestration potential

Records of major hydrological and hydrochemical characteristics of the measurement supersite’s water bodies, studies of aquatic vegetation, flora and fauna

Identification of conditions promoting the dispersion of impurities in the atmosphere above the measurement supersite’s ecosystems. A database containing information on the respiration and photosynthesis in the main edificators of the carbon measurement supersite’s ecosystems

Summary of long-term field studies of destructive processes in the organic matter of plant origin in the forest communities of the measurement supersite. Assessment of the content of labile fractions of organic matter in humus horizons of soils. Study of the qualitative composition of soil organic matter by IR spectrometry methods, assessment of carbon transformations in soil ecosystems