Our scientists have returned from the field work they carried out in the Berkazan-Kamysh swamp massif in Bashkiria. Danil Ilyasov, head of the Ecosystems Geoinformatics Laboratory and Alexander Kaverin, junior researcher of the laboratory, conducted monitoring jointly with colleagues from the Ufa Institute of Biology, Ural Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Field work included measurement of greenhouse gas fluxes, changes in the properties of vegetation and soil cover of the flooded peatland.
For both research centers, this is a promising and mutually beneficial partnership. An excellent school of studying the properties of an ecosystem as sources or sinks of greenhouse gases has developed at Yugra State University, and colleagues from Ufa, first of all, geobotanists, have a very powerful school of studying the properties of vegetation cover.
The ongoing research falls within the framework of two large federal projects - Carbon Polygons and VIP GZ (the most important innovative project of national importance), in which Yugra State University is a participant. These federal projects are aimed at studying the carbon balance of various ecosystems in Russia and assessing their possible sequestration (absorption) capacity, that is, assessing these ecosystems as greenhouse gas sinks. Berkazan-Kamysh and the adjacent steppe territories will be included in the research objects of the Carbon Polygons program, which includes Mukhrino.
“In the future, the Berkazan-Kamysh peat bog may also become a member of the VIP GZ program. And there will be installed long-term monitoring of greenhouse gas flows with the help of Eddy-covariance towers, which have already been installed in Yugra. I think that within the framework of this work, we will also continue our exchange of experience,” said Danil Ilyasov, head of the Ecosystem Geoinformatics Laboratory of Yugra State University.