The carbon sequestration in post-agrogenic ecosystems of Russia

Abandoning of agricultural lands began in some regions of Russia since the end of XIX century. Our calculation shows, that the total area of abandoned lands since that time in Russia is approximately 71 mln ha. And almost at 65 mln ha of them (fallows) the process of the self-restoration of natural post-agrogenic ecosystems is very active. The accumulation of carbon in them (soil + vegetation) increases from the north to the south, reaches the maximum value in the zone of hardwood forests, and decreases again to a minimum level in the semidesert zone. The fallows (soil+ plants) presently accumulate about 64 million tons carbon annually (first of all in south taiga -34 mln tons), which is more than 25% of the total current industrial emission of carbon in Russia.