The paper is devoted to the assessment of the prospects of implementing clean energy sources in Russia, where the current energy policy goal is to increase the role of renewable and clean energy sources. The research is based on data from the Krasnoyarsk Region as one of the largest territories but also as a representative model of Russia. The aim of the study is to identify where and which renewable energy source (solar, wind, hydro and nuclear) has the highest potential. The novelty of our research lies in its holistic nature: authors consider both geographical and technical potential for renewable energy sources development as well as prospective demand for such resources, while previous research is mostly focused on specific aspects of renewable energy development. We also consider the level of air pollution as an important factor for the development of renewable energy sources. The results of the study show that there is a strong potential for clean energy sources in the Krasnoyarsk Region. The resulting matrix identifies the potential of energy sources across all the municipal entities and also indicates whether the source of energy is primary or supplemental and where several sources may be implemented in cooperation.

An understanding of how boreal forest composition responds to global environmental changes is an important challenge to predicting the future global carbon balance. Boreal forests are the most significant sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide; however, their sequestration capacity is highly sensitive to ongoing climate changes. The combination of the hydrothermal conditions of a territory strongly regulates its biogeochemical processes. The carbon fluxes in boreal forests are strongly mediated by the ground vegetation cover, composed of mosses (mesic) and lichens (xeric). Despite the concurrence of xeric and mesic vegetation types, their responses to climate variations varies significantly. Soil emission is an informative indicator of ecosystem functioning. In this study, we focused on the soil CO₂ dynamics during frost-free seasons with different precipitation regimes in the xeric and mesic boreal ecosystems of Central Siberia. Seasonal measurements of soil CO₂ emissions were conducted during frost-free seasons using the dynamic chamber method. Our findings reveal that the precipitation regimes of each year may control the seasonal soil emission dynamics. The soil moisture is the most important driver of emissions growth in the water-limited lichen pine forest (R²adj. = 18%). The soil temperature plays the largest role in the feather moss pine forest during the dry (R²adj. = 31%) seasons, and in the lichen pine forest during the wet (R²adj. = 41%) seasons. The cumulative efflux for the xeric and mesic sites is mostly related to the hydrothermal conditions, and not to the differences in ground vegetation cover. During the dry seasons, on average, the soil CO₂ emissions are 45% lower than during the wet seasons for both sites. These findings emphasize the need for estimating and including the hydrothermal characteristics of the growing season for detailed emission assessments.

Boreal forests in Siberia cover more than 70% of the area of this region. Due to climate change these ecosystems represent a very sensitive and significant source of carbon. In the forests, the total ecosystem respiration tends to be dominated by the soil respiration, which accounts for approximately 70% of this large flux. Global models predict that the soil respiration will increase more than the total net primary productivity in response to climate warming and increasing precipitation. In consequence, the terrestrial carbon sink is expected to decline. However, for the Siberian boreal forest there is still a gap in understanding of the future response of soil emission to drought or overprecipitation conditions. In our study we estimate how various moisture conditions could change soil emission in the boreal zone. From field observation data we find optimal soil moisture conditions. The highest dependence between the soil temperature and soil emission rates has been obtained under the optimal soil moisture conditions.

There is the significant progress in recent decades in the quantification of terrigenous carbon release to the rivers of the Arctic Ocean basin and characterization of its chemical properties, origin and age (e.g. Amon et al., 2012, Holmes et al., 2012). As warming accelerates the thawing permafrost may potentially increase the release the ancient carbon (Wild et al., 2019, Estop-Aragonés et al., 2020). However, more detailed analysis is still needed particularly in regard of the age of carbon exported from the diverse landscapes of large Arctic rivers and its transformation during the transport to the Arctic ocean.In this study we analyzed D14C in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) of the Yenisei River main channel and its major tributaries between 56oN and 68oN at freshet, summer and fall seasons. D14C was measured in Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (Germany) by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system based on a 3MV Tandetron accelerator as described earlier (Steinhof et al., 2017). The oldest DOC in the Yenisei main stem was detected right after the Krasnoyarsk dam (56oN) and varied during a year without clear seasonal pattern in the range of the fraction of modern C (fMC) from 0.868 to 1.028. At freshet the fMC increased down stream up to 1.12 at 60oN and then remained relatively stable between 61o and 67.4oN (1.097±0.014). The major tributaries released DOC with fMC ranging from 1.0869 (Angara, 58oN) to 1.1046 (Kurejka (66.5oN), demonstrating more modern C with latitude. During the summer-fall season the Yenisei main channel and main Eastern tributaries contained older DOC (fMC = 0.968-1.054 and 0.949-1.045, respectively).The POC of the Yenisei River was sufficiently older (fMC = 0.83-0.92) than DOC at all seasons and showed similar latitudinal pattern, i.e. the youngest POC was detected near 60-61oN (fMC > 0.90). The D14C-POC values in analyzed tributaries were increasing with latitude at freshet (R2 = 0.53) and summer lowflow (R2 = 0.33), except the largest Eastern tributaries, demonstrating the slight opposite pattern. On the other hand, increasingly more ancient POC was releasing by permafrost-dominated Eastern tributaries with increasing basin size. In opposite, D14C-POC of Western tributaries showed increased input of more recently fixed carbon. Our findings provided new data on the formation of terrigenic carbon fluxes to the Arctic Ocean from one of the largest river basins in the Arctic. This study was supported by RFBR grants #18-05-60203-Arktika. The radiocarbon analyses were kindly supported by Max-Plank Institute for biogeochemistry (ZOTTO project).

Bryophytes and lichens usually dominate the ground floor layer of boreal forests and tundra, and contribute up to 50% of ecosystem gross CO2 exchange (Bisbee et al. 2001; Goulden & Crill 1997). While Sphagnum spp. are the most important contributors in wetland C uptake, feathermosses and lichens play a significant role in drained habitats (Nilsson & Wardle 2005; O’Connell et al. 2003; Bjerke et al. 2013). Given their important ecological roles in such widespread biomes, it is surprising that still a few studies have attempted to understand the intrinsic factors that control moss-lichen cover carbon exchange dynamics specifically under ongoing climate change in high latitudes.The aim of this work was to determine photoassimilation activity the widespread species of moss-lichen stratum during the growing season. The study has been conducted in Central Siberia near Zotino tall tower observatory (ZOTTO, 60 ° N, 89 ° E) in lichen- and feathermoss-dominated pine forests. The intensity of CO2 photoassimilation of ground vegetation dominants (Cladonia stellaris O., Cladonia rangiferina L., Cetraria islandica L., Pleurozium schreberi W. ex B., Hylocomium splendens H., Dicranum scoparium H.) was determined in situ by infrared gas analyzer Walz GFS-3000 (Heinz Walz GmbH, Effeltrich, Germany) during the most part of a growing season (from June to September).Bryophytes demonstrated more intense photosynthetic activity throughout the growing season. From June to September, among the studied moss species, the highest values of photoassimilation were observed for P. schreberi, and the lowest for H. splendens. The maximum values were recorded in August for all studied species and amounted to 4.36 ± 0.13 μmol / m2 / s, and the lowest values were recorded in June to 1.4± 0.08 μmol / m2 / s . Among lichens, C. stellaris was the most photosynthetically active, and C. rangiferina showed the least CO2 photoassimilation rates. Moss-lichen layer dominants maintained relatively high photoassimilation activity throughout the growing season.The research was funded by Krasnoyarsk Regional Fund of Science within the framework of the project № 2021 102007845  and RFBR, Krasnoyarsk Territory and Krasnoyarsk Regional Fund of Science, project number 44-243003.