Carbon Stocks Potential in Regenerating Trees of the Tropical Coastal Forest Ecosystems | Chapter 02 | Current Perspectives to Environment and Climate Change Vol. 3
Estimation of carbon in the
regenerating tropical coastal forest is needed to support conservation and
forest monitoring strategies. This chapter presents the determined carbon
stocks in regenerating species across forest sites subjected to deforestation because
of crop-farming and livestock grazing. The study used thirty-three independent
measurements of tree carbon stocks from thirty-three tree families found in the
coastal zone of Tanzania. The vegetation was inventoried using a floristic
survey of the woody component across intact, crop agriculture and livestock
disturbed land-use sites. The biomass was then estimated by employing the
existing allometric equations for tropical forests. Thereafter, the
above-ground stored carbon was quantified on the sampled tree species found in
each land uses. The tree varied (p ≤ .05) in carbon stock across species and
land uses. The average carbon (Kg/ha) stored in the regenerated adult trees was
1200 in IFS, 600 in ADS, 400 in LDS. Saplings had 0.43 in LDS, 0.07 in ADS and
0.01 in IFS. Also, seedlings showed an average of 0.41 in IFS, 0.22 in ADS and
0.05 in LDS. It shows that crop-agriculture highly affects the regeneration
potential of trees, biomass accumulation and carbon stock than livestock
grazing. To restore the carbon storage potential of coastal tropical forests,
crop-agriculture must be discouraged, while livestock grazing can be integrated
into forest management. Indeed, further studies are required to gauge the
integration levels of any anthropogenic activities, so that the natural
capacity of coastal tropical forests to regenerate and stock carbon is not
comprised further.
Author(s) Details
Dr. Elly Josephat Ligate
(Ph.D)
Department of Biosciences,
Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3038, Morogoro, Tanzania.
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