Methods of Landscape Ecology in Prognostic Estimation of the Biotic Regulation of the Carbon Cycle

The ideological basis and scientific and methodological aspects of the landscape–ecological approach to the study of the phenomenon of biotic regulation of the carbon cycle by forest ecosystems under climate change are outlined. The experience of analytical and cartographic predictive empiric–statistical modeling of the carbon balance of forest biogeocoenoses of the Volga River basin was carried out on the basis of large-scale landscape–ecological surveys, using new methods of geo-morphometry. The transition from the local level of predictive mapping to the regional level was carried out using a specially developed method of inductive–hierarchical extrapolation. These methods are described for constructing analytical and cartographic empirical–statistical models that make it possible to reveal the local mechanisms of biotic regulation and identify the zonal-regional types of forest formations capable of stabilizing the continental biosphere in the changing climate.