The Forest Ecosystems Laboratory was created on December 1, 2020 by combining three Sectors - Forest Ecosystems, Forestry and Geobotany. Previously, these Sectors were separate Laboratories within the Forest Department, created in 1966, up to its merger with the Department of Soil Science:
- Laboratory of Forestry (organized in 1992 by merging the Laboratory of Forestry and the Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Biology);
- Laboratory for the Development and Productivity of Forests (established in 1989, before that from 1966 to 1988 it was the Laboratory of Forest Typology of the Institute of Biology & Soil Science);
- Laboratory of Geobotany (formerly Laboratory of Geobotany and Systematics of Higher Plants, organized in 1962 during the establishment of the Institute of Biology & Soil Science).
The main study subjects:
- Study of the forests dynamics under the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors.
- Dendrochronology - reconstruction of climatic changes over the past centuries and reconstruction of disturbance history of old-growth stands.
- Study of the population structure of the tree species.
- Monitoring of the hydrological and ecological role of the forests.
- Influence of modern volcanism on vegetation.
- Monitoring of artificial ecosystems and bioindication of the state of the environment under conditions of anthropogenic and technogenic impact.
- Rational use of forest resources as a basis for biodiversity conservation and nature protection.
Much of the laboratory's research is based on data obtained from permanent sample plots. In particular, a large network of 33 sample plots is maintained at the Verkhneussuriisky Research Station of the FSC Biodiversity Feb RAS, one of which is 21 hectares in size and meets the currently generally accepted standards for the sample plots used for long-term study of natural forest dynamics (Forest Development Plot). This is the only sample plot of this type in the Russian Far East. Other permanent sample plots were established in the Reserves of the Primorsky Territory - Ussuriysky, Kedrovaya Pad and Sikhote-Alinsky.