The First Digital Maps of Biological Productivity Parameters

The databases and maps of the phytomass, mortmass, and annual production for Northern Eurasia published by N.I. Bazilevich in 1993 historically played an important role in the intensification of studies of the biological productivity of plant ecosystems in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The development of biological science in the last decades emphasized the priority and importance of these studies. This work presents the results of the formal processing of the digitized original maps of the phytomass, mortmass, and annual production compiled by Bazilevich for the natural zones and natural-agricultural provinces in the entire territory of the former Soviet Union. The values averaged for the entire territory of the former Soviet Union were 218.2 Gt of raw material (1 Gt = 10(9) t) for the phytomass reserves, 81.4 Gt for the mortmass, and 15.7 Gt/ha for the annual production. These are the theoretical estimates of the potential reserves of plant organic matter in the land systems of Northern Eurasia without consideration for the anthropogenic impacts (the infrastructure, settlements, land use, etc.) and the natural destruction processes. These estimates are not only of historical interest but they also quantitatively characterize the initial state of the ecosystems in the former Soviet Union for the assessment of the dynamics of the production process on the threshold of the epoch of global changes.