Application of site-specific biomass models to quantify spatial distribution of stocks and historical emissions from deforestation in a tropical forest ecosystem

Abstract

Allometric equations developed for the Lama forest, located in southern Benin, West Africa, were applied to estimate carbon stocks of three vegetation types: undisturbed forest, degraded forest, and fallow. Carbon stock of the undisturbed forest was 2.7 times higher than that in the degraded forest and 3.4 times higher than that in fallow. The structure of the forest suggests that the individual species were generally concentrated in lower diameter classes. Carbon stock was positively correlated to basal area and negatively related to tree density, suggesting that trees in higher diameter classes contributed significantly to the total carbon stock. The study demonstrated that large trees constitute an important component to include in the sampling approach to achieve accurate carbon quantification in forestry. Historical emissions from deforestation that converted more than 30% of the Lama forest into cropland between the years 1946 and 1987 amounted to 260,563.17 tons of carbon per year (t CO2/ year) for the biomass pool only. The study explained the application of biomass models and ground truth data to estimate reference carbon stock of forests.