Estimation of pine forest timber volume in the European part of Russia’s Subarctic region: Evidence from the Kola Peninsula recovering from catastrophic disturbances

Abstract

The study provides a comparative assessment of the volume of pine forests growing in the European part of the Subarctic region of the Russian Federation (the Kola Peninsula). This characteristic is one of the most important indicators in the forest inventory during the economic assessment of forest stands. The study considers forest communities at various stages of recovery after catastrophic disturbances with a special focus on forest cutting and forest fires. These catastrophic violations are of a different nature when exposed to elements of the forest ecosystem. Therefore, it can be assumed that different communities may experience differences in the estimated characteristics in the process of staged recovery. An alternative hypothesis of this study is the assumption that a comparative assessment of timber volume will vary between communities with different types of catastrophic disturbances (cutting and forest fire) at least in the early stages of recovery.