Carbon stock of the various carbon pools in Gerba-Dima moist Afromontane forest, South-western Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Unlike in the developed countries, Ethiopia does not have carbon inventories and databank to monitor and enhance carbon sequestration potential of different forests. Only small efforts have been made so far to assess the biomass and soil carbon sequestration at micro-level. This study was carried out to obtain sufficient information about the carbon stock potential of Gerba-Dima forest in south-western Ethiopia. A total of 90 sample plots were laid by employing stratified random sampling. Nested plots were used to collect data of the four carbon pools. For trees with a diameter range of 5 cm < diameter < 20 cm, the carbon stock was assessed from a plot size of 49 m 2 (7 m * 7 m). For trees with a diameter range of 20 cm < diameter < 50 cm, the carbon stock was assessed from a plot size of 625 m 2 (25 m * 25 m). For trees > 50 cm diameter, an additional larger sample of 35 * 35 m 2 was used. Litter, herb and soil data were collected from 1 m 2 subplot established at the center of each nested plot. To compute the above ground biomass carbon stock of trees and shrubs with DBH > 5 cm, their DBH and height were measured. The biomass carbon assessment of woody species having DBH < 5 cm, litter and herb were conducted by measuring their fresh weight in the field and dry weight in the laboratory. Results The mean total carbon stock density of Gerba-Dima forest was found to be 508.9 tons carbon ha −1 , out of which 243.8, 45.97, 0.03 and 219.1 tons carbon ha −1 were stored in the above ground biomass, below ground biomass, litter biomass and soil organic carbon, respectively. Conclusions The existence of high carbon stock in the study forest shows the potential of the area for climate change mitigation. Thus, all stakeholders at the local and national level should work together to implement effective conservation measures and get benefit from the biocarbon fund. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13021-019-0116-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Carbon stocks of above- and belowground tree biomass in Kibate Forest around Wonchi Crater Lake, Central Highland of Ethiopia

“…The standard method for estimation of BGB was obtained as 20% of AGB following Mac-Dicken [53] and IPCC [2], using a synthesis of global data and a conservative ratio shoot-toroot biomass of 5:1 (Eq 8). This conversion factor is widely used in several studies of similar forest types elsewhere in Ethiopia [45][46][47][48].…”

“…Thus, the tropical forest biomass has been estimated by applying the corresponding regression equations [8,29,32,43,44]. However, studies on C stocks of aboveground biomass (AGB) and belowground biomass (BGB) of trees related to environmental factors have been very limited in Ethiopia [45][46][47][48] and completely lacking in the study area. Assessments of the status of forest C stocks through estimation of AGB and BGB of trees are therefore urgently needed.…”

Adaptive radiation and burst speciation of hillstream cyprinid fishGarrain African river

“…It drains the Ethiopian Highlands close to the south-western escarpment. The region is covered by moist Afromontane forest that is drastically shrinking in the last decades due to agricultural development (Dibaba, Soromessa, & Workineh, 2019). The Sore is a rather little river with a length of ca.…”

Assessment of forest cover and carbon stock changes in sub-tropical pine forest of Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Pakistan using multi-temporal Landsat satellite data and field inventory

“…Conversely, the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) when forests are cleared or degraded [4]. Hence, deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of anthropogenic emissions worldwide [5,6] with varying regional statistics [7]. Globally, a net decrease of 1.7% in the forest area with an annual rate of change of 0.11% was reported for the period 1990-2005 [8] and it was estimated that during the period 2005-2010 the reduction in global forest area led to decrease in forest biomass carbon stock by an amount of 0.5 Gt annually [7].…”

“…Hence, deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of anthropogenic emissions worldwide [5,6] with varying regional statistics [7]. Globally, a net decrease of 1.7% in the forest area with an annual rate of change of 0.11% was reported for the period 1990-2005 [8] and it was estimated that during the period 2005-2010 the reduction in global forest area led to decrease in forest biomass carbon stock by an amount of 0.5 Gt annually [7]. Sustainable forest management (SFM) greatly relies on the important components like assessments of forest cover, forest carbon stocks and carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation [9].…”