Tag «Expedition»
Silver Taiga field trip season was finished with an expedition to the upper reaches of the Mezen River (including its tributaries Upper and Lower Puzla), Elva Mezenskaya and Pyssa. The aim of a week-long tour (September 29 to October 6) was to monitor the Atlantic salmon spawning grounds under Model River Mezen project. The monitoring at the given area is being conducted since 2011. Read more
Silver Taiga representatives together with the Tekhkarta Company conducted a field verification of the spruce-fur forest in Komi defined by the Transparent World Company (Moscow) to help the FSC-certificates’ holders to identify high conservation value forests (HCV 3) on their forest territory and to conserve them according to the FSC-certification national standard.
The main goal of the expedition was to visit the maximum possible amount of the spruce-fur forest lines in the central part of Komi, to identify the compliance of the spruce-fur forest lines presented on HCVF.RU with the FSC national standard requirements. Totally 22 spruce-fur forest lines were investigated during the five days in Syktyvdin, Kortkeross, Lokchim, Ust-Kulom and Pomozdino forestry units.
According to the preliminary results of the field verification there is no spruce-fur forest in the central part of the middle taiga subzone of Komi corresponding to the FSC national standard requirements.
There is the spruce-fur forest in the southern part of Komi within the boundaries of Letka, Priluzje, Koigorodok and a southern part of Ust-Nem forestry units on the border of Kirov and Perm regions, but its proportion is far below than it is presented on HCVF.RU.
The spruce-fur forest in the southern part of Komi is associated with the narrow spectrum of a wildlife habitual area. In general, it is located in the central part of the large rivers’ banks.
has been investigated during the joint expedition of the Geography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and Silver Taiga Foundation under the project devoted to the estimation of the territory degradation balance in boreal forests on the basis of Komi Model Forest.
In 2016 UN Convention on the desert advancing control developed a scientific outlook on the neutral balance of the territory degradation. According to the given outlook there are three key indicators of the neutral balance. They are the state and the changes of the ground cover, land productivity, carbon stock (above and under the surface). Territory degradation balance on the given territory (including forest areas) could be considered as neutral if all of these indicators remain the same for a certain period of time.
The expedition lasted for four days on the logged areas of different ages and on the south taiga close to the future Koigorodok National Park and in Noshul forestry unit.
Windfall of the different decomposition stages in the natural forest
The main goal of the field works is to estimate the carbon losses after logging, fire, building of roads and other human actions. The field works results will be processed and organized in a system but already now it is clear that he activity of the carbon dioxide gas flow out of the surface on fresh loggings (3 – 5 years of age) is three and more times greater than the same activity in the untouched forest ecosystems.
Surface respiration measuring
One more fact discovered during the expedition is that the certified forest companies systematically leave key forest elements and biotopes. They in some way compensate a dramatic reduction of the organic stock (wood) after logging and support a pattern structure of the forest landscape on the logged areas.
To define a neutral balance of the forest territory degradation the typology of taiga landscapes natural dynamics developed by Silver Taiga Foundation is going to be used.
Participants of the expedition
Photo by Alexander Borovlev and Andrey Ptichnikov
This conclusion was made by members of the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development after they had made an inspection trip to the Irva lakes in Udora district on 16-20 July 2018. The expedition was held as part of the Model River Mezen project.
The Irva lakes are a series of lakes connected through the Irva river. As AgroUdora fishery cooperative having dealt with fishing at the Irva lakes for several decades states, from year to year their water bodies get more and more overgrown with exploding aquatic vegetation, such as duckweed, pondweed, spatterdock, rush, hornweed and shavegrass. Some lakes get completely covered with green weeds with no clear spots left. It is getting more and more difficult for fishermen to find their way for boat transportation. What’s worse, fish suffocation occurs in the lakes from time to time.
It is getting more difficult for fishermen to move their boats
Based on the results of the research during the expedition, the lakes eutrophication process continues, extensive drift is accumulated. According to Nikolay Shilov, Model River Mezen project coordinator and head of the research group, such phenomena occurring in water basins lead not only to reduced fish population, but also to changing of fish communities. The share of high-value fishery species like lake herring or grayling goes down, while the population of common species – perch or roach – increases.
Silver Taiga’s experts started research on the Irva Lakes as early as two year ago trying to identify dominating plant species and the area of weediness on the lakes. When the monitoring was completed, they managed to request the Federal Fishery Agency (Rosrybolovstvo) to include cleaning of the lake of Krivushev-Ty in the 2017 Action Plan for Fishery Improvement of Aquatic Bodies. Respective activities were successfully fulfilled on the lake last year. This year, a request for improvement has been sent by the cooperative, but it has not been approved by the sectoral science. However, it was necessary to assess the efficiency of last year improvement activities and monitor the development of negative trends on the lakes. Unfortunately, as Nikolay Shilov reports, the level of water turned out to be higher than the summer steady low water level and event went up when the Foundation’s people worked on the Irva lakes. In this connection, the research group faced some methodological difficulties in assessment of weediness, as some plants were partially covered with water.
Krivushev-Ty
“The cooperative’s and the Foundation’s staff got different opinions on the efficiency of last year improvement activities. Agro-Udora believes that the efficiency was zero. Silver Taiga’s experts monitoring the ongoing situation with a fresh mind think that the area cleared from vegetation last year remains relatively clean. But our views about the root cause of weediness of the lakes – failure to clean the bottoms of water reservoirs from mud and drift – were similar. If you do not clean the bottom, aquatic plants will grow even more intensely in those areas due to favorable conditions, such as shallow water, rich nutrition for root systems of plants, good heat penetration and light intensity. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to conduct a large-scale clean-up of the water reservoirs by AgroUdora’s efforts only. Improvement requires massive and costly activities, in addition, the region has no equipment for such work,” Nikolay Shilov concludes.
According to his words, there is another option – biological improvement, which is the least expensive method. However, traditional release of plant-eating fish will not be fruitful as a result of severe climatic conditions in this area. Water rats deal successfully with aquatic vegetation, but the population of the gnawing animal has reduced, because they are killed by fishers. They believe that water rats damage their fishing nets.
“Nevertheless, we should not quit the idea of cleaning the Irva lakes. The cleaning strategy has been discussed with representatives of Rosrybolovstvo, and we will try again to apply for the federal program of fishery improvement of water bodies. The data obtained through the recent research will become the base for justification of the need in cleaning activities,” Nikolay Shilov sums up.
The Irva lakes
Back in 2004-2008 the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development mapped large intact forest landscapes (IFLs, areas of intact forest of over 50,000 ha) in the Komi Republic, later cores of those IFLs, the most valuable from the environmental point of view and unaffected by any industry areas, were agreed with various stakeholders. Since then, the Foundation has been systematically dealing with inspection of such remote intact tracts to award the status of PAs (specially protected natural areas) to them. In 2009-2013, Koygorodok IFL in the south of the region was inspected, and now a new national park – Koygorodok National Park – is planned to be established there. In 2016, the Silver Taiga Foundation arranged an international scientific expedition to Verkhnyaya Vashka IFL to find justification for the new landscape reserve. In 2017, the environmental and economic feasibility study for the Osa complex landscape reserve was prepared and forwarded to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Komi Republic. In summer 2018 an expedition to the Core of the Karpogory IFL located near the border of Udora district of Komi and Pinega district of Arkhangelsk region was planned.
The following experts took part in the expedition which started on 18 June 2018 in Chuprovo, Udora district: Andrey Korolev and Natalya Semenova, scientists of Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Syktyvkar, phytosociologist Asya Zagidullina from Saint Petersburg, Finnish experts Junikka Jaako Juhani and Olli Antti Manninen, and Nikolay Shuktomov and Sergey Davydov from the Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development. They inspected the Karpogory IFL to identify habitats of Red Book species of plants and animals, rare ecosystems and landscapes. Later, the information on biodiversity collected during the trip will be included in the documents to justify establishment of the wildlife sanctuary on that area.
Zoologists Andrey Korolev and Junikka Jaako Juhani monitor the situation
It is important to note that the place is remote and difficult for access. The only reliable type of transportation is a motorboat. The base camp of the participants was 70 kilometers away from the village of Chuprovo. To get to the camp the members of the expedition had to travel by boat up the Kurmysh river. The guide was one of the local residents of Chuprovo – Nikolay Tyurnin.
Nikolay Tyurnin, the guide
The central part of the Karpogory tract was conducted by groups of 2-3 people. The walking distance of the routes was from 15 to 25 kilometers. On the way, one could see family marks, which means that the area had been used by local people for traditional activities for a long time.
Family marks
The long spring this year postponed the start of vegetation and blossoming of many of vascular plants, however, the scientists managed to find a very rare orchid – Calypso bulbosa which is included in the Red Book of Russia. According to the leader of the expedition – forestry coordinator Nikolay Shuktomov from Silver Taiga – the experts were extremely lucky to find it. The participants of the trip also found some unique lichens and fungi in the Karpogory tract. Zoologist Andrey Korolev and ornithologist from Finland Junikka Jaako Juhani identified some rare bird species. The expedition managed to make a photo of a big predator bird very similar to a honey buzzard included in the Red Books of many areas, including the one of Arkhangelsk region.
Calypso bulbosa orchid
The Karpogory IFL is one of the biggest well preserved tracts of intact forest. Its area exceeds 393,500 ha, the area of the core is more than 276,500 ha. The last expedition was the third one. In 2007 a trip to the southern part of the tract along the Puchkoma river was arranged. The team included members of the Silver Taiga Foundation, a representative of the SPOK environment protection organization from Karelia, and the head of the Udorachi public movement. The experts were to estimate the degree of preservation of forests and availability of Red Book species of plants and animals. In 2011, an expedition to audit the Ezhuga wildlife sanctuary (the northern part of the Karpogory IFL) was arranged as part of the UNDP/GEF project. The group included scientists of Institute of Biology of the Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, staff of the Silver Taiga Foundation, experts from Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg. The expedition report was included in the UNDP/GEF summary report on assessment of representativeness of specially protected natural areas (PA) of the Komi Republic. Based on the results of the studies an idea emerged to create the Karpogory wildlife sanctuary merging together Puchkoma and Ezhuga reserves. The 2018 expedition concluded the series of studies in this IFL. The following stage will be development of an environmental justification for the Karpogory wildlife sanctuary, which will merge the existing Puchkoma reserve in the Komi Republic and Ezhuga reserve in Arkhangelsk region into an integrated specially protected natural area of regional significance, thus preserving unique intact forest tracts of middle taiga for upcoming generations.
In the heart of the Karpogory tract