Moroz V. The ecological role of oak windbreaks in Right-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine.

TThe thesis is devoted to the investigation of ecological and meliorative efficiency of windbreaks in the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe. The state of field-protective afforestation, age structure, species composition, structural features of windbreaks, and their forestry-evaluation indices are analyzed. It was established that the difference between the average numbers of species composition of oak trunks in windbreaks does not depend on the method of their creation. The standards of volumes of trunk in depending on the height and stem diameter at a height of 1.3 m and a bit volume tables are developed. It's determined the carbon sequestration and oxygen productive functions of oak windbreaks and their energy potential in Right-Bank Forest-Steppe as an example of Kyiv and Cherkassy regions. For oak windbreaks is proposed an empirical equation and standards for determining reserve phytomass and carbon accumulation, oxygen productiveness and their energy ability. It's found out that windbreaks accumulate in 30% more aboveground phytomass and absorb carbon in comparison with massive forest stands. Windbreaks absorb annually about 67.5 thousand tons of carbon and emit 190 thousand tons of oxygen, indicating a significant ecological role windbreaks and the necessity to increase the volume of their creation. In the oak windbreaks in Cherkassy and Kyiv regions energy content in phytomass is 1.1 million tce, accounting for 19.6% of the energy used natural gas.