Search

The problem considered in this paper is the need to step up the methodological and informational support for improving the environmental and economic efficiency and sustainability of natural resource management in the Kamchatka territory (Russia) and the adjacent marine areas of the Pacific Ocean.The object of the research is the natural resource potential of the research area.The subject of research includes: clarification of the composition, structure and system relationships of the main natural resource potential components of the region as the elements of natural capital; selection and adaptation of methods for evaluating elements of natural capital, as well as practical valuation of this capital.The purpose of the assessment is the identification of the comparative environmental and economic efficiency of possible environmental management strategies in the area based on the criteria of conservation/growth of the region’s total capital, as well as economic incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of the natural resource potential of this exceptionally rich, but still poorly studied region.As a result of research, an original open classification of economically significant resources of animate and in animatenature of the region and their assessment as natural capital has been developed.The novelty of the obtained methodological results is determined by the expansion of the region’s natural capital elements, the refinement of their structure and intra-system connections.New in the practical assessment of the region’s natural capital is the assessment of the economic services of terrestrial and marine ecosystems for the long term deposition and fossilization of organic carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The report summarizes the results of research on the topic of the report carried out by the authors in 2017-2019 as part of the study of climate change problem. The purpose of the research is the approximate physical and cost assessment of ecosystem services of binding, long-term deposition and fossilization of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide by marine ecosystems. The object of research is dissolved organic matter (DOM) as a large reservoir of atmospheric carbon deposition in the seas of Northern Pacifica. The study area – the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, and adjacent to Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean within the boundaries of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Russian Federation. Materials and methods – literature sources and data of satellite monitoring of primary production (phytoplankton) in the research area for 1998-2016. Methodical and instrumental base – system analysis, interdisciplinary approach and simulation. The results and their novelty – for the whole research area, as well as for its seas and their separate zones are calculated: the probable volume of dissolved organic matter (DOM); the probable annual volume of long-term deposition of atmospheric carbon to the DOM; the probable annual volume of carbon fossilization of the DOM in bottom sediments; the probable annual and capitalized cost of deposition to the DOM and disposal in the sediments of the study area of the calculated volumes of CO2. All these results for the research area were obtained for the first time, but their quantitative reliability is estimated only at the level of the order of magnitude. This is determined by the general scarcity of initial information on the object of research and, above all, by the high uncertainty of available literature estimates of the time of full mineralization of DOM in high-latitude seas. Refinement of these estimates using computational balance experiments on simulation models is another task of the authors on the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently a sharp increase of carbon dioxide content in atmosphere of the Earth is one of the great environmental concerns. It could lead to negative (possibly catastrophic) changes of our planet climate. Experts attribute the rapid and significant increase in anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the number of anticipated causes of this problem, as well as the continuing (also anthropogenic and significant) decrease in the natural storage capacities of this greenhouse gas in terrestrial ecosystems. The rate of increment in CO2 absorption by the carbonate system of the Ocean is reduced [1]. Full and even minimum required restoration of the natural reservoirs capacity for runoff of atmospheric carbon, its deposition and storage as proposed in several studies [2] is almost impossible. Therefore, it is very important today to maintain the carbon reservoirs of still undisturbed marine ecosystems in every way possible. At the same time, the insufficient knowledge of the capacity of these carbon reservoirs does not allow them to be involved in international climate conservation strategies. Biologically the most productive ecosystems of boreal and subarctic seas are especially poorly studied from this point of view. For many of these seas the carbon capacity of their ecological and carbonate systems has not been estimated yet. This report presents the first estimates obtained for carbon capacity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Okhotsk and Bering Seas which are the largest and most productive seas of the North Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem - the climate change. The direction of solving of the problem - the measurement of condition and forecasting of the dynamics of absorption, accumulation and long-term removal of atmospheric carbon by marine ecosystems. The report presents simulation model of the Okhotsk Sea ecosystem and some of the quantitative results of experiments performed on the basis of this model in the direction indicated. The data on the Okhotsk Sea ecosystem's primary production, used in the model are not of sufficiently high accuracy yet. However model experiments have shown that the role of the Okhotsk Sea ecosystem in the absorption of carbon dioxide is comparable to the absorption capacity of the overland boreal ecosystem of corresponding area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of the biological potential of the World Ocean assume the need for a balanced industrial exploitation of mass commercial species and their predators in common biocenosis. At the same time insufficient current studying and considerable delay in changing of a structure in response of current fishery impacts make difficulties in a practical solution of issues on enhancement of balanced species exploitation in particular biocenosis. The solution of the issue on maintenance of balanced use of various components of exploited biocenosis under the lack of needed information on current and possible (resulted from fishery) structure of biocenosis can be provided by simulation-based models. The report presents algorithmic simulation model that helps to solve such problems by the example of a fisheries management of five flounders species, cod and sculpins near the Western coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New methodological, methodical and instrumental solutions are presented for direct cost valuation of proper economic functions of biodiversity. Such valuation could provide a basis for effective economic means of protection, recovery and rational use for diverse forms of exploited wildlife. Implementation of proposed solutions is illustrated by practical valuation of economic functions (services) for some forms of intra-specific and inter-specific diversity in pacific salmon [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]