Estimation of the areas of peatland and paludifi ed Shallow-peat forest in Russia
On the basis of the geo-informational systems Peatland ecosystems of Russia, developed at the Institute of Forest Science (Russian Academy of Sciences), and the Map of Forests of Russia (2004), the areas of forest cover on peatlands (139 mln ha) and on paludifi ed shallow-peat lands (230 mln ha) were estimated. Tress are present on 38% of the peatland area, of which more than half (21%) is sparsely treed. Forests (peatland forests) cover only 17% (24 mln ha). The majority of peatlands (over 62%) are open. More than half of the paludifi ed shallow-peat habitats are also open, and the remainder (23 and 24%) are almost equally divided between forested an sparsely forested types.