ИСТИНА

The world’s boreal forest plays an important though imperfectly understood role in the climate system. The status of the carbon budget worldwide is unclear. This is particularly true of the large Russian component of the boreal forest, where only a small proportion has been inventoried and little is known about its recent evolution over time. We describe an ongoing project which aims to develop and apply new technologies for studying the dynamics of the Russian boreal forest during the 21st century over a wide range of spatial scales, and to understand it in the context of climate change. The project is a collaboration between two institutions in the UK and three in Russia, and builds on institutional links that have been developed over nearly 30 years. We present some early results from the project, discuss the support framework within which it has been developed, and outline a strategy for its enlargement in the future to include other forms of disturbance to the boreal forest.