Forest Carbon Stocks in Lowland Area of Simien Mountains National Park: Implication for Climate Change Mitigation

Forests play a significant role in climate change mitigation by sequestering and storing more carbon from the atmosphere which was released by anthropogenic causes. The overall objective of this study was to estimate carbon stock potential of lowland forest of Simien Mountains National park for climate change mitigation. And it aimed to add values of the lowland forest of the park for climate change mitigation contribution in Ethiopia. The work was accomplished properly using random sampling to estimate the forest carbon in above and below ground biomass by considered each trees and shrubs which had DBH ≥5 cm. Above ground biomass was estimated by using allometric models equation of Brown (1998) while below ground biomass was determined based on the ratio of below ground biomass to above ground biomass factors of (MacDicken, 1997). Dead wood, leaf litter, herb and grass (LHG) and soil organic carbon were conducted according to sampling quadrates data and laboratory result. The results shown that, there were twenty species with a density of 2334 trees and shrubs in the study sites which had DBH ≥5 cm. The mean above ground and below ground biomass carbon stock were 270.89±154.50 and 54.18±30.81 t ha-1 respectively. The mean above ground biomass carbon per species was 20.42±17.99 ton. The mean carbon in dead wood, LHG and soil carbon were 0.7258±1.0479, 0.019±0.008and 242.51±46.42 t ha-1 respectively.Keywords: Carbon stock Climate change Mitigation Simien Mountains National Park Poisoned food techniqu

High aboveground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests

Tropical forests store 40–50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon1. However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests2. Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation3, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with lowland forests2. Here we assemble and analyse a dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (AfriMont) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries. We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC stock of 149.4 megagrams of carbon per hectare (95% confidence interval 137.1–164.2), which is comparable to lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network4 and about 70 per cent and 32 per cent higher than averages from plot networks in montane2,5,6 and lowland7 forests in the Neotropics, respectively. Notably, our results are two-thirds higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default values for these forests in Africa8. We find that the low stem density and high abundance of large trees of African lowland forests4 is mirrored in the montane forests sampled. This carbon store is endangered: we estimate that 0.8 million hectares of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2000. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC stock estimates modelled from our plot network to help to guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions. Our findings highlight the need for conserving these biodiverse9,10 and carbon-rich ecosystems

High above-ground carbon stock of African tropical montane forests

Tropical forests store 40–50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon1. However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests2. Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation3, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with lowland forests2. Here we assemble and analyse a dataset of structurally intact old-growth forests (AfriMont) spanning 44 montane sites in 12 African countries. We find that montane sites in the AfriMont plot network have a mean AGC stock of 149.4 megagrams of carbon per hectare (95% confidence interval 137.1–164.2), which is comparable to lowland forests in the African Tropical Rainforest Observation Network4 and about 70 per cent and 32 per cent higher than averages from plot networks in montane2,5,6 and lowland7 forests in the Neotropics, respectively. Notably, our results are two-thirds higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change default values for these forests in Africa8. We find that the low stem density and high abundance of large trees of African lowland forests4 is mirrored in the montane forests sampled. This carbon store is endangered: we estimate that 0.8 million hectares of old-growth African montane forest have been lost since 2000. We provide country-specific montane forest AGC stock estimates modelled from our plot network to help to guide forest conservation and reforestation interventions. Our findings highlight the need for conserving these biodiverse9,10 and carbon-rich ecosystems