Atlas of Primorskii Krai Forests

The Atlas of Primorskii Krai Forests is based on a geodatabase containing both cartographical and descriptive attributes of more than 470,000 forest stands in the "Primorskii Krai" (Russian Far East)—located at the juncture of Russia, China, and North Korea. Characteristics of state forestlands contained in forest management plans were entered into the database. The database was compiled by forest planning agencies for each national forest. It provided a mechanism for defining and mapping forest formations and grouped forest types (part of the hierarchical structure of the Sikhote-Alin forest classification system).

At the forest stand level, data for the last 10 years has been used to identify 160 to 170 forest types. For this reason, forest types can be grouped on the basis of the stand characteristics and the productivity of woody canopy, resulting in 63 grouped forest types.

Content of the atlas includes Vegetation of Primorskii Krai in 1955 (1:500,000); Habitat of the Grouped Forest Types of the Natural and Sustainable Secondary Forest Formations and Subformations (1:500,000); Distribution of the Area, Covered by a Forest, According to Predominant Species (1:500,000); Distribution of the Area, Covered by a Forest, According to Stand Aged Groups (1:500,000); Distribution of the Area, Covered by a Forest, According to the Timber Volume per Hectare (1:500,000); Specially Protected Areas and Forests with Protective Categories that Exclude the Commercial Timber Harvest (1:500,000); Volumes of the Above Ground Phytomass of the Forest Stands in the Main Forest Formations (1:1,500,000); and The History of the Forest Pests Outbreaks (1:1,500,000).

The atlas was prepared for publication by researchers from the Pacific Institute of Geography, the Institute of Biology and Soil Science of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FEB RAS), and the Forest Service Agency.

Copyright 2005 Pacific Institute of Geography FEB RAS, copyright 2005 Institute of Biology and Soil Science FEB RAS, copyright 2005 Forest Service Agency over the Primorskii Krai. Edition was supported by the Russian Fund for Basic Research (Project #00-05-78053).