Land Use Contribution to the Anthropogenic Emission of Greenhouse Gases in Russia in 2000-2011

A. A. Romanovskaya, V. N. Korotkov, N. S. Smirnov, R. T. Karaban, and A. A. Trunov

Presented is the assessment of the contribution that such major types ofthe land use in Rus¬sia as arable lands, forage lands, settlements, and peatery make to anthropogenic fluxes of carbon diox¬ide CO2, methane CH4, and nitrogen oxide N2O. The assessment is based on the methods of computa¬tion monitoring carried out in the period from 2000 to 2011. The results of the study demonstrated that every year arable lands cause the emission of CO2 and N2O of about 117.0 and 74.9 million t CO2 equiv, and peatery, 0.54 and 105.4 thousand t CO2 equiv, respectively. The balance of soil carbon in hayfields and pastures is close to zero. The average emissions of CH4 and N2O from the manure of pasture ani¬mals amount to 0.2 and 5.0 million t CO2 equiv/year, and those from grass fires, 276.1 and 372.5 thou¬sand t CO2 equiv/year, respectively. The carbon balance in permanent soils of settlements is also almost close to zero, and newly built-up lands are the source of CO2 (9.5 million t/year). The natural overgrow¬ing of fallow lands leads to the accumulation of the soil carbon (about 92.4 million t CO2/year). It was revealed that the intensity of CO2 emission is defined by the soil carbon balance and that of other gases, by the amount of nitrogen fertilizers, plant residues, and manure coming to the soil. The total emission from the land use is 106.9 million t CO2 equiv/year that makes up 4.9% of the total anthropogenic emis¬sion of greenhouse gases in the Russian Federation.