Assessment of carbon reserves in the litter and soil of the Prilenskoe Plateau

The assessment of carbon stocks in the litter and soil of highly productive forests on the Prilenskoe Plateau was conducted using widely accepted methods of general biology, landscape science and geocryology. The research focused on larch-birch and pine-larch forests situated on continuous permafrost, as well as on long-term fallow lands. Notably, the fallow land, in contrast to the forested areas, exhibited a significant loss of organic carbon from the soil, amounting to up to 83 % within a 30 cm depth due to the exploitation of forest resources. The total organic carbon (TOC) reserves in the forest litter ranged from 17 to 35 kg/m². In the larch-birch forb-lingonberry forest, the TOC reserves in the soil were measured at 19.57 kg/m² for the 0–30 cm layer, 26.79 kg/m² at 1 m depth, and 34.98 kg/m² at 2 m depth. Conversely, in the pine-larch lingonberry forest, these values decreased to 9.28 kg/m², 15.41 kg/m², and 18.91 kg/m², respectively, while in the fallow land, the measurements were 3.37 kg/m², 6.35 kg/m², and 8.91 kg/m². The total inorganic carbon (TIC) reserves in the active layer of the larch-birch forest were found to be 3.46 kg/m², in the pine-larch lingonberry forest 5.81 kg/m², and in the fallow land 4.35 kg/m². The forests of South-Eastern Yakutia represent an essential component of the global carbon reservoir; however, they may lose their nutrient accumulation function under anthropogenic pressures. This study serves as the preliminary phase of a long-term research initiative aimed at systematizing carbon pools in representative permafrost landscapes of Yakutia and elucidating the patterns of carbon variation across diverse natural and climatic zones