ИСТИНА

The presentation is devoted to the contribution of climate change and land management practices to the observed changes in forest-steppe and steppe ecosystems of the Former Soviet Union (FSU)| Russian Federation in years 1982 - 2014. The economic importance of this area is defined by the large-scale agriculture, which frequently takes over 50% of the lands, while some of the grasslands are protected from the economic activity. Alterations in land management practices have led to significant changes in land use in the region, with increasing area under agriculture during the early years of the study followed by falling yields and returning the land to grassland in the 1990s. This trend has been reversed once again in the early 2000s with increased state support and better integration into global food trade. Adding to the impacts from the economics, changed precipitation patterns has led to increased aridity in parts of the region. Corresponding trends in biological productivity of agricultural lands and grasslands were analyzed and mapped based on the derivatives of NDVI time series at a 8 km to 250 m spatial scale.