PHYTOMASS AND CARBON STORAGE DURING THE EEMIAN OPTIMUM, LATE WEICHSELIAN MAXIMUM AND HOLOCENE OPTIMUM IN EASTERN-EUROPE

The phytomass stored in terrestrial vegetation at 5.5, 18 and 125 Ka B P, representing the environmental extremes of the Late Quaternary, was estimated for the Russian Plain, excluding the northern coast and adj acent piedmont. The estimates are based on paleovegetation maps by Gri chuk [Grichuk. V.P., 1982. Rastitel 'nost' Evropy v pozdnem pleistotse ne. In: Gerasimov. I.P., Velichko, A.A. (Eds.), Paleogeografiya Evropy za Posledniye sto Tysyach Let. Nauka, Moscow, pp. 92-109, (in Russian ).] for Eemian optimum, by Velichko and Isayeva [World Atlas of Resour ces and Environment, 1996. Lionty, H.A. (Ed.). Institute of Geography of RAS, Moscow, Vienna.] for the Late Glacial Maximum, and by Khotinsk iy [Khotinskiy, N.A., 1984. Holocene vegetational history. In: Velichk o, A.A. (Ed.), Late Quaternary Environments of the Soviet Union. Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 179-200.] for the Late Atlantic, together with analysis of the ecological-coenotic connections of plan ts and their modem areas. Vegetation on the East-European Plain at 125 , 18 and 5.5 Ka BP contained 81.0, 3.1 and 61.4 million kilotons of ph ytomass, which represents 36.5, 1.4 and 27.6 Gt of carbon. The phytoma ss of terrestrial plants thus represents an important sink of carbon. Its marked changes make it an important pan of the carbon balance duri ng the Pleistocene and the Holocene. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.