Biomass Accumulation and Carbon Sequestration in an Age-Sequence of Mongolian Pine Plantations in Horqin Sandy Land, China

Abstract

The Mongolian pine (Pinus sylvestris L. var. mongolica Litv.) was first introduced to the southeastern Horqin sandy land in the mid-1950s. Since then, it has been widely planted and has become the most important conifer species in Northern China, providing significant ecological, economic and social benefits. However, its function in sequestering carbon at different developmental stages has been little studied. In this study, twenty plots inventory and destructive sampling of eight trees were conducted in 12-, 19-, 34-, 48- and 58-year-old Mongolian pine stands of China. Allometric biomass equations (ABEs) for tree components were established and used to determine the magnitude and distribution of tree biomass and carbon density. The carbon density of the understory, forest floor and soil was also determined. The ABEs with age as the second variable could simply and accurately determine the biomass of plantation tree branches, foliage and fruit, which were considerably influenced by age. With increasing stand age, the proportion of stem biomass to total tree biomass increased from 22.2% in the 12-year-old stand to 54.2% in the 58-year-old stand, and the proportion of understory biomass to total ecosystem biomass decreased, with values of 7.5%, 4.6%, 4.4%, 4.1% and 3.0% in the five stands. The biomass of the forest floor was 0.00, 1.12, 2.04, 6.69 and 3.65 Mg ha−1 in the five stands. The ecosystem carbon density was 40.2, 73.4, 92.9, 89.9 and 87.3 Mg ha−1 in the 12-, 19-, 34-, 48-, and 58-year-old stands, in which soil carbon density accounted for the largest proportion, with values of 67.4%, 76.8%, 73.2%, 63.4%, and 57.7% respectively. The Mongolian pine had the potential for carbon sequestration during its development, especially in the early stages, however, in the later growth stage, the ecosystem carbon density decreased slightly.

Assessment of land-cover changes and carbon sequestration potentials of tree species in j4 section of Omo Forest Reserve, Ogun State, Nigeria

“…This is also in consonance with the finding of Idiege et al (2013), who reported higher biomass accumulation for Gmelina arborea at later growth stages. Whereas, this may not be so for pine species, whose rates of carbon stock accumulation were better at early stage of development (Zhang et al, 2019).…”

“…However, it has been noted that decline in forest biomass is attributed to the mortality or loss of large trees within the stand, which must have caused changes in stand density and structure. In effect, it did not imply that carbon accumulation 1991-20022002-20191991-20022002-2019 The result of classification accuracy assessment is presented in table 10. The overall accuracy of the classification was 86.5%.…”

Comparison of Carbon Storage Measurement Methods on Agroforestry Systems in Sakon Nakhon Province, Northeast Thailand

“…At present, advanced remote sensing technology with satellite imagery such as Landsat, Terra/Modis, and THEOS, has been developed and applied to the data from satellites to study the structural characteristics and density of plant species in the Earth's forests (Jundang et al, 2010;Robinson et al, 2013;Laosuwan & Uttaruk, 2014). This data can be used to evaluate biomass along with allometric equations to calculate the amount of carbon sequestration occurring in the forests (Xu et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2019). The objective of this research is to integrate participation for farmers in tree measurement and carbon sequestration assessments using satellite imagery.…”

Forest Stand Management and Biomass Growth

“…The contribution to the Special Issue comprises 19 articles by authors involved in university, research institutions, and agencies, from nine countries from Asia, Europe, and America. The articles deal with agroforestry [1], natural forests [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], and forest plantations [13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

“…Hook. [4,16], Pinus sylvestris L. [10,15], Pinus taeda L. [14], Pinus nigra J.F.Arnold [18], Pinus rigida Mill. and the understory Quercus variabilis Blume, Quercus acutissima Carruth., Quercus mongolica Fisch.…”