Carbon-sequestering and oxygen producing functions of urban forests of Kyiv city and pre-urban forests of Stockholm city

Abstract: Interest to carbon-sequestering and oxygen-producing functions of forest has risen considerably during last decades. Abovementioned functions of forest ecosystemsacquire special significance in pre-urban and urban forests. These forests perform not only stabilizing and protective functions, but also are a renewable resource.Due to rapid development of modern technologies (bioenergy), the latter namedfeature becomes more and more important. However, currently there is practicallyno one scientifically based assessment of abovementioned functions of pre-urbanforests, especially in comparison with other regions and countries.The main aim of this study was to assess and quantify carbon sequestration andproduction of oxygen of selected parts of urban forests of Kyiv city and pre-urbanforests of Stockholm city, and to compare the results.Within this study, techniques developed by P. Lakyda (computation of phytomassand sequestered carbon) and N. Tshesnokov and V. Dolgosheev (estimation ofoxygen productivity of forests) were applied. Authors have encountered numerous“compatibility problems” with the technique used and the initial datasets.Nevertheless, majority of the problems were solved successfully, thus enablingaccomplishment of the main aim. This research is important as a test ofcompatibility of different methodologies and datasets, and provides quantitativeestimation of carbon-sequestering and oxygen-producing functions of the studiedforests.