Forest Stand Carbon Map of Russia at 1:15 Million Scale

Stone et al. (2000) produced the first spatially explicit map of forest stand carbon reserves for Russia at a 1:15 million scale. The dataset includes continuous estimates and categorized ranges of carbon density in metric tons per hectare, representing 96% of the 26.1 petagrams of forest tree stand carbon documented for the country. Source data were digitized from the 1973 Soviet Atlas of Forests and combined with carbon storage data from Alexeyev and Birdsey (1998).

Use Cases

• Modeling national and regional forest carbon budgets using continuous carbon density estimates.
• Assessing the spatial distribution of carbon reserves across Russian administrative regions.
• Validating modern remote sensing estimates of above-ground biomass against this historical baseline.
• Analyzing categorized carbon density ranges for land cover classification and change studies.

Strengths

• The map represents 96% of the total 26.1 Pg of forest tree stand carbon documented for Russia, providing a near-complete national estimate.
• It is the first known map of its type for Russia, establishing a foundational historical baseline.
• Data synthesis combines digitized forest cover maps from 1973 with peer-reviewed carbon storage coefficients.

Limitations

• Source forest cover data is from 1973, making the carbon estimates historical and potentially not reflective of current conditions.
• Platforms conflict on the last updated date: datagov lists 2026-03-12 (likely a placeholder), while nasa_earthdata lists 1973-12-31.
• The dataset does not map carbon from bushes, accounting for nearly half of the unmapped 4% of total forest stand carbon.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Stone et al. (2000).

Collection Method

Map digitization from the Atlas of Forests for the Soviet Union (1973) combined with spatial application of carbon storage data from Alexeyev and Birdsey (1998).

Time Range

1973

Freshness

1973-12-31 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Land area of Russia.