BIOL3465 Tropical Forest Ecology and UseMeasurement of Carbon Stocks in Tropical Forests

Jessica Ghingooree ID# 812000668 Demonstrator: Pauline

Introduction:

According to the literature, what are the amounts of carbon (tonnes per hectare) that are stored in a tropical moist forest according to other studies? (Include at least one reference)

Brown and Lugo (1984) indicated that Tropical lowland moist forest has an carbon content of approximately 185 tC/ha (std err =/- 12), however (Rodin, Bazilevich, and Rozov 1975) in their study indicated it that time it was 290tC/ha. This shows that over two centuries stored carbon was continuously being converted into free CO2 a key gas that is responsible for climate change. Pearson, Walker, and Brown (2013), method for calculation carbon present showed that a 55cm dbh tree contains 1.47 tons of carbon. This calculation can aid in determining with some level of accuracy the amount of stored carbon present in our forest so that some economic value can be placed towards it. According to the literature, how important are the amounts of carbon stored in tropical forests to the global carbon balance? (Include at least one reference)

Forests and trees store carbon. When they're burnt down or cleared, a process referred to as deforestation, this stored carbon is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and contributes to climate change. Tropical deforestation contributes about 12% of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activity. Detwiler and Hall (1988) stated that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) in 1750 to about 345 ppm in 1984.

Since 1977 this interest in the global cycling of carbon has involved a controversy between terrestrial ecologists and geochemists. All participants agree that the principal cause of the increase in atmospheric CO2 in recent years has been the combustion of fossil fuels, which released about 5.2 gigatons (GT; 1 GT = 1 x 10[15] g) of carbon during 1980 (Brown and Lugo 1984, Corlett and Primack 2008). To balance their global carbon budgets, a number of geochemists postulated that terrestrial ecosystems, like plants in greenhouses, increase their rate of photosynthesis in the presence of increasingly elevated levels of CO2. Therefore the preservation of this tropical forest is important for the removal of carbon dioxide in the air and converts it into stored carbon (Detwiler and Hall 1988).

What is REDD (and REDD+) and how does it try to help global climate change (Include at least one reference-

Redd is a set of policies designed to tackle climate change by driving more funding into forest protection. REDD specifically refers to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation  in an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. "REDD+" goes beyond deforestation and forest

degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (Phelps, Webb, and Agrawal 2010).

Objectives: To estimate the carbon stocks in a tropical rainforest and to compare the carbon stocks to amounts found in other places and reported in the literature.

Method:

Fieldwork: A 20m × 20m rainforest plot was laid out behind UWI St. Augustine Campus using a 50m tape. All trees in that plot above 1 cm DBH (3.14 cm CBH) were identified and the CBH for each individual was recorded in excel data sheet. Analysis: The DBH was calculated using compiled stem CBH / Pi. Each tree’s biomass was calculated using the formula from Pearson, Biomass (kg) = exp (-2.289 + 2.649 × ln dbh-0.021 × ln dbh2) and the sum of all trees gave the total above ground biomass density (ABD) in tonnes per hectare. The bellow ground biomass density (BBD) was then calculated using the formula BBD (= exp (-1.0587 + 0.8836 × ln ABD). Both the total above ground biomass and total below ground biomass was added giving the Total Biomass. Finally, an estimation of the total carbon present was obtained by dividing the Total Biomass by 2 (Timothy Pearson 2005).

Results:

Discussion:

References:

Brown, Sandra, and Ariel E Lugo. 1984. "Biomass of tropical forests: a new estimate based on forest volumes." Science 223 (4642):1290-1293.

Corlett, Richard T, and Richard B Primack. 2008. "Tropical rainforest conservation: a global perspective." Tropical forest community ecology:443-457.

Detwiler, Ralph Paul, and Charles AS Hall. 1988. "Tropical forests and the global carbon cycle." Science 239 (4835):42-47.

Pearson, Timothy, Sarah Walker, and Sandra Brown. 2013. Sourcebook for land use, land-use change and forestry projects. Accessed April 8, 2015.

Phelps, Jacob, Edward L Webb, and Arun Agrawal. 2010. "Does REDD+ threaten to recentralize forest governance." Science 328 (5976):312-313.

Rodin, LE, NI Bazilevich, and NN Rozov. 1975. "Productivity of the world's main ecosystems." Productivity of world ecosystems:13-26.