Forest management strategies for adaptation to climate change: Species selection and optimisation of reforestation technologies

The aim is to identify the most effective technologies for implementing forest‐climatic reforestation and afforestation projects that maximise the absorption of greenhouse gases and increase the sustainability of forest ecosystems in the central forest‐steppe of the European part of Russia. The forests of the forest fund of six regions of the Russian Federation (Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Orel and Tambov Regions) were selected as the object of the research. The forest typology system of P.S. Pogrebnyak and the edaphic grid of forest conditions types have been used to assess the effectiveness of technologies, providing for differentiation according to four types of soil richness and six moisture gradations. The forest plans were analysed and compared and greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration were estimated for selected species compositions and tree species mixing schemes. Optimal types of forest conditions for large‐scale implementation of forest‐climatic projects have been identified. The most effective technologies of artificial reforestation with the use of local economically valuable species have been recognised, which would provide a 12–15 % reduction in CO₂ emissions and an increase in annual greenhouse gas absorption of up to 2.8 t/ha. The combination of species composition and adaptation of mixing schemes would allow the increase of resistance of plantations to climatic stresses by 18–22 %. The project scenarios developed can serve as a basis for scaling up forestclimatic projects in the central forest‐steppe, ensuring both ecological and economic efficiency of carbon sequestration measures.