Assessing the Scale of Damage to Forests and Carbon Dioxide Emissions Caused by an Outbreak of Phyllophagous Insects Based on the Remote Sensing Data

During the outbreaks of forest insects, carbon is emitted into the atmosphere in the form of its dioxide. As a result of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, the volume of carbon deposited in stands decreases, and in order to assess the impact of insects on the process of carbon deposition by trees, a quantitative assessment of carbon dioxide fluxes into the atmosphere is necessary. The amount of damage to stands during an outbreak of forest phyllophagous insects, during which carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, was chosen as the object of research in order to get insights into the process of carbon dioxide emission. To analyse the processes occurring during the outbreak of pests, a model of food consumption by insects of different species was considered, based on the methods proposed for calculating carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Remote sensing methods of NDVI dynamics monitoring were used to assess the areas of stands damaged by insects. It was shown that a correct assessment of the area of the outbreak using remote methods should be carried out by comparing the NDVI distribution density curves in different years. Based on the data obtained, a method is proposed for assessing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere during the mass reproduction of forest insects.