Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility

The Zotino Tall Tower Observation Facility ZOTTO is a climate research station in the Siberian taiga near Sotino ( Turuchansk Rajon of Krasnoyarsk, English transcription Zotino ). Built and operated by the Max - Planck Society and Russian partners, it serves in particular long-term studies that will extend over the next 30 years. Far away from civilization influences the researchers want to determine, among other things, how they affect the concentration of greenhouse gases and rising temperatures of the earth's atmosphere each other.

The heart of the system is a 304 m high tower, on the precision instruments measure the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases. The evaluation of the measured data takes place at the station at the foot of the tower and at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, directly.

The station is since September 2006 as a follow-up project of the TCOS -Siberia (Terrestrial Carbon Observing System - Siberia ) in operation, a completed project of the European Union and the Russian Federation. Under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, the scientists from seven EU countries and the Russian Federation came to the conclusion that the boreal forests of Siberia represent than previously assumed a much lower carbon sink.