Abstract
Boreal forests and podzolic soils supporting forest vegetation are of utmost importance in the global carbon cycle. The role of Russian forests as a sink of carbon is in fact acknowledged, but soils have even a higher capacity to store carbon and the ill uviation of organic matter in podzolic soils could enhance this phenomenon. Soil Organic Matter (SOM) that accumulates in the spodic horizons is protected from mineralisation due to the lower microbial activity and strong interactions with the inorganic phases. Anthropogenic disturbances may deeply interfere in the podzolic ecosystem functionality and this sink of C may turn into a source. The objectives are to evaluate the risks of C release caused by human actions, through the assessment of the changes in ecosystem functionality. The specific aims are to study the effect of pollution on forest cover and soil buffering capacity, to assess the effect of silvicultural practises on the dynamics of carbon and on the preservation of productive soils, and to evaluate the effects of revegetation where the original forest cover has been destroyed by open mine exploitation. All the data obtained will be used to forecast changes occurring at short and medium term scenarios, by developing, adapting and validating specific models. The technical issues of the project will lead to the development of a summary of best practises to protect the podzolic environment capacity as a carbon sink.
Europe