Carbon Storage in Biomass and Soil after Mountain Landscape Restoration: Pinus nigra and Picea abies Plantations in the Hyrcanian Region
Author(s)
Date Issued
2022
Type
article
Volume
11
Issue
3
Start Page
1
End Page
15
Journal
Abstract
Forest plantations have significantly more potential for carbon storage than non-forested areas. In this study, the amount of carbon stored in the biomass (trees, shrubs, herb, litter, and deadwood) and soil of 25-year-old plantations with P. nigra and P. abies species was measured and compared with the non-planted adjacent area (control) in a mountainous region of northern Iran. The results show that the amount of carbon stored in the biomass of P. nigra and P. abies plantations was 4.4 and 3.3 times higher than the value of the control (4.59 C Mg ha−1 ), respectively. In addition, the amount of carbon stored in soil was 1.5 and 1.2 times higher than the value at the control site (47.91 C Mg ha−1 ), respectively. Of the total carbon stored in the biomass of plantations, the highest level was observed in trees (86.5–88.5%), followed by shrubs (4.6–6.5%), litter (2.7–2.8%), the herbaceous layer (1.8–2.5%), and deadwood (1.7–2.4%), while 45.5%, 34.6%, 10.8%, 5.8%, and 3.3% of the total carbon stored in the biomass of the control site were in shrubs, trees, the herbaceous layer, litter, and deadwood, respectively. The soil carbon sequestration rate (SCSR) in soil depths of 0–10 and 10–20 cm was 0.46 and 0.44 C Mg ha−1 yr−1 in the P. nigra plantation and 0.15 and 0.23 C Mg ha−1 yr−1 in the P. abies plantation, respectively. According to the results, we conclude that the restoration of the landscape by tree plantation has a substantially determining impact on the acceleration of carbon sequestration.
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
land-11-00422.pdf
Size
5.4 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
eb52ab1760f1902b277b38e449742a33
Project(s)
This work was financially supported by the Italian Ministry for Education, Uni versity and Research (MIUR) (Law 232/2016, Italian University Departments of excellence—UNITUS DAFNE WP3).