Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
JEWM
Research article
Department of Natural Resource Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource Science, Debre Berhan
University, Post Box No: 445, DebreBerhan, Ethiopia.
2,3
Center for Environmental Science, College of Natural Science, Addis Ababa University, Post Box No: 1176, Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.
Global forests are extremely diverse and provide a variety of ecosystem services including
carbon sequestration. Large trees are the most effective organisms to stock atmospheric
carbon. Ethiopia has substantial forest resource cover. But there is still limitation of scientific
studies that magnify the role of forests for climate change mitigation. This study focus on the
estimation of selected tree species carbon stock and their variation across different diameter at
2
breast height, tree height and stem density in Gedo forest. The data collected from 200m
sample plots by using systematically stratified sampling method. The main finding of this study
was dominant trees in the forest contribute large amount of total carbon density stock by
storing 74.59% of total carbon. The amount of carbon stocked in selected trees significantly
varies within different diameter and height classes. Trees which have large height and diameter
but smaller in number store large amount of aboveground and belowground biomass carbon
-1
with maximum 589.24ton ha carbon at higher diameter class. These findings demonstrate that
tree biomass carbon determined by tree stand structure (density, diameter and height).
Keywords: Climate change mitigation, tree diameter, forest carbon stock, tree height, stem density.
INTRODUCTION
Climate change is a major global threat. Over the last
century, global temperatures have risen by 0.7C
(Eliasch, 2008). Global climate change is predicted to
lead to rising temperatures, sea-level rise, changing
weather patterns, and more unpredictable and severe
weather events. It is likely to cause changes in rainfall
patterns, flooding, drought periods, forest fire frequency,
and fluctuating water availability. The combined effect will
decrease agricultural production and increase food
insecurity (Malla and Blaser, 2010).
Globally, forests cover about 4 billion hectares (ha) of
land, or 30% of the Earths land surface (FAO, 2008).
Tackling climate change is one of the most important
roles of forest by storing and sequestering carbon.FAO
(2010) Estimated that the worlds forests store 289 Gt of
*Corresponding
author:
Hamere
Yohannes,
Department of Natural Resource Management, College
of Agriculture and Natural Resource Science, Debre
Berhan University, Post Box No: 445, Debre Berhan,
Ethiopia.
E-mail:
hamerenew@gmail.com,
hamerey@gmail.com
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
Yohannes et al.
102
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
0.2
(equ. 2)
Where, BGB is below ground biomass, AGB is
above ground biomass, 0.2 is conversion factor (or
20% of AGB). Then the carbon content converts
accordingly.
According to (Kent and Coker, 1992)the stem density
was calculated by the following formula:
=
. . (equ.3)
103
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
Yohannes et al.
104
Table 1. Estimated Above and below ground biomass carbon amount for selected trees
Scientific Name
Family
Name
AGB
(ton/ha)
BGB
(ton/ha)
AGBC.
(ton/ha)
BGBC.
(ton/ha)
T.C
(ton/ha)
CO2equ.
(ton/ha)
Podocarpaceae
M.
DBH
(cm)
61.9
Podocarpus falcatus
102.98
20.59
48.4
9.68
58.08
213.17
Schefflera abyssinica
Araliaceae
53.8
75.38
15.07
35.42
7.08
42.51
156.02
Prunus Africana
Rosaceae
39.1
36.31
7.26
17.06
3.41
20.48
75.17
Flacourtiaindica
Flacourtiaceae
38
33.96
6.79
15.96
3.19
19.15
70.31
Albizia gummifera
Fabaceae
32.5
23.41
4.68
11
2.2
13.2
48.46
Apodytes dimidiata
Icacinaceae
31.6
21.87
4.37
10.28
2.05
12.33
45.27
Oleaceae
31
20.87
4.17
9.81
1.96
11.77
43.21
Oleaceae
29.8
18.96
3.79
8.91
1.78
10.69
39.24
Ekebergia capensis
Meliaceae
29.3
18.18
3.63
8.54
1.7
10.25
37.64
Ricinus communis
Euphorbiaceae
28.2
16.54
3.3
7.77
1.55
9.33
34.25
Myrica salicifolia
Myricaceae
27
14.84
2.96
6.97
1.39
8.37
30.73
Acacia abyssinica
Fabaceae
25
12.23
2.44
5.74
1.14
6.89
25.31
Dombeya torrida
Sapindaceae
25
12.23
2.44
5.74
1.14
6.89
25.31
Pittosporum viridiflorum
Pittosporaceae
22.7
9.54
1.9
4.48
0.89
5.38
19.75
Allophylus abyssinca
Sapindaceae
22.3
9.11
1.82
4.28
0.85
5.13
18.86
Syzygium
guineese
subsp. afromontanum
Olea welwitschii
Myrtaceae
22
8.79
1.75
4.13
0.82
4.96
18.2
Oleaceae
21.7
8.48
1.69
3.98
0.79
4.78
17.56
Olinia rochetiana
Oliniaceae
21.1
7.88
1.57
3.7
0.74
4.44
16.31
Phoenix reclinata
Arecaceae
21.1
7.88
1.57
3.7
0.74
4.44
16.31
Fabaceae
19.8
6.65
1.33
3.12
0.62
3.75
13.77
30.68
24.18
4.83
11.36
2.26
13.63
50.05
Erythrina brucei
Average
M. DBH ((mean diameter at breast height); AGBC and BGBC (Above ground and belowground biomass carbon respectively); T.C. (Total
carbon).
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
105
Table 2. Aboveground and belowground biomass carbon variation within different DBH classes
BH classes
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7
Class 8
Class 9
Stem
density
(stems/ha)
1610
2860
2460
805
350
290
85
60
50
AGB.C
(ton/ha)
BGB.C
(ton/ha)
T. C. density
(ton/ha)
T.
CO2
equivalent
Percentage
of C. stored
0.3
3.21
16.85
46.5
79.78
137.1
199.62
276.68
491.04
0.06
0.64
3.37
9.3
15.95
27.42
39.92
55.33
98.2
0.36
3.85
20.22
55.8
95.74
164.52
239.54
332.01
589.24
1.32
14.12
74.2
204.78
351.36
603.78
879.11
1218.47
2162.51
0.02
0.25
1.34
3.71
6.37
10.95
15.95
22.11
39.24
Class 1 (5-10cm); Class 2 (>10-30cm); Class 3(>30-50cm) ; Class 4 (>50-70cm); Class 5 (>70-90cm); Class 6 (>90-110cm); Class
7 (>110-130cm); Class 8 (>130-150cm) and Class 9 (>150cm)
Table 3. Aboveground and belowground biomass carbon variation within different height classes
Height
classes
Class 1
Class 2
Class 3
Class 4
Class 5
Class 6
Class 7
Stem
density
(stems/ha)
1390
2625
2750
1210
470
105
15
AGB.C
(ton/ha)
BGB.C
(ton/ha)
2.51
3.67
20.23
50.87
120.8
335
50.39
0.5
0.73
4.04
10.17
24.16
67
10.07
T.
C.
density
(ton/ha)
3.01
4.4
24.27
61.04
144.96
402
60.46
T.CO2
Equivalent
(ton/ha)
11.05
16.16
89.09
224.03
532
1475.34
221.91
Percentage
of C. stored
0.43
0.62
3.46
8.71
20.7
57.41
8.63
Class 1 (2-5m); Class 2 (>5-10m); Class 3(>10-20m); Class 4 (>20-30m); Class 5 (>30-40m); Class 6 (>40-50m); Class 7 (>50m);
CONCLUSION
Large and dominant trees are important to store
substantial amount of carbon in their biomass. These
trees are very effective because they are more adaptable
for local climate and soil condition. Different diameter
size, tree height and stem density have significant impact
on the amount of carbon stored in the trees biomass.
There are a few numbers of trees which have large
height and diameter in the forest but they store large
amount of carbon in their biomass. Forest management
has significant role for climate change mitigation, since
when the forest managed properly, there will be more
large trees which can stock more carbon.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author acknowledged the contributions of Dr. Uzay
Karahalil, Indu K Murthy, Mykola Gusti, Ana Isabel
Cabral, Maarten Smies, Raine Isaksson, Dominique
Herv and Prof. Kokou Kouami for donating their time,
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
Yohannes et al.
106
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
Copyright: 2015 Yohannes et al. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are cited.
Estimation of carbon stored in selected tree species in Gedo forest: implications to forest management for climate change mitigation
107