Abstract—Global warming is mainly due to the increase of green

house gases or it is known as green house effect. The existence of

rubber tree is beneficial because rubber tree can reduce CO2, more

over, rubber tree provide income from latex and timber harvesting.

The experiment was carried out Balai Penelitian Sembawa, on area

planted in 1979 or the age of tree was 33 years and there were 2

clones studied i.e. RRIM 600 and GT 1. Estimation of CO2 fixation

by GT1 and RRIM 600 rubber clones were carried out by measuring

biomass and the C organic content in biomass. The experiment was

using destructive method by cutting down the tree with various girth

size. Then the weight of tree was determined by partioning biomass

into stem, branch, leaf and root. Small sample was taken for C

organic content determinaion by ashing method. The result showed

that the bigger girth of tree, the more C organic content was found.

The economy of timber of clone RRIM 600 was higher than GT 1

because of RRIM 600 had higher timber volume. Based on C

organic concentration, and biomass weight, RRIM 600 fixed CO2 as

much as 1,288 ton/ha while GT 1 fixed CO2 as much as 1.028 to/ha

for 1 life cycle. In average, RRIM 600 and GT 1 fix CO2 as much as

39.056 and 31.167 ton per hectar per year,

Keywords—CO2 fixation, rubber plantation

I. INTRODUCTION

The Global warming and climate change is affected all over

the world. This is mainly due to green house gas concentration

in the atmosphere is kept increasing. Climate change is

becoming United Nation’s agenda and there is some effort to

reduce emmision from varoius sectors slow down the global

warming

Green house gases especially CO2 keep increasing since the

industry revolution and this was relate to the increasing global

temperature. The green houses gases is acting like roof of

green house that is absorbing the long wave radiation from

earth surface and re radatiated to earth surface and prevent the

cooling process of air [1].

Alchemi Putri Juliantika Kusdiana, Aprizal Alamsyah, Sherly

Hanifarianty, Thomas Wijaya*, are with Indonesian Rubber Research

Institute, Jl Salak No 1, Bogor, Indonesia

Forest and climate change is becoming interesting topics. It

was estimated that 1.7 billion ton carbon was release every

year due to land use change. Deforestration and forest

degradation is main contributor of green houses gas emission

in Indonesia. During 10-15 yaers back, forest fire, peat

drainage causing the emmision more than 0.5 billion ton of

carbon [2].

Trees have ability to fix CO2 from air through

photosynthesis process so that trees can reduce CO2 content in

the air. Reforestration is one way to reduce CO2.

Reforestration as much 1-2 million km2 was estimated to

capture carbon as much as 1 billion ton per year [3].

Rubber trees are potential in absorbing CO2. The life cycle

of rubber trees is 30 years, and this long period of time will

enable rubber tree to accummulate subtantial amount of CO2.

Previous experment conducted by Sivakumaran et al. [4]

estimate that the amount of carbon absorbed in 1 ha of rubber

area at 27 years old was 319 ton

There is a good rubber wood industry in Indonesia now,

while in few decades back, the majority of rubber wood was

wasted and rubber wood waste become source of carbon

emmission. Rubber wood is now commonly used in furniture,

Medium density fibre factory and veenner industry. Thus,

carbon is retain in rubber wood product for long period of

time or rubber tree can function as carbon storage

The research activity was carried to determine the amount

of CO2 fixed by two clone RRIM 600 dan GT 1 by measuring

the biomass and C content. Prediction of biomass and carbon

content was also done by using simple linear regression.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted at the Sembawa Research

Centre, South Sumatra, The site was 1979 planting area or 33

years old rubber planting with two clones RRIM 600 and GT

1. The tree samples were 10 trees for each rubber clone. The

tree sample was randomly chosen with different girth sizes.

A. Measurement of Tree Biomass

Tree biomass was measured by partitioning tree into stem,

banch, leaf and root. Stem is main part of tree without

branches. The stem, braches were cut into 2 m lenght pieces to

make easier in weighing. At the same time girth or

circumference of stem and branch was measured in order to

calculate timber volume. Leaf was separated and weight in

fresh condition then small sample was taken for water content

and C organic content determination. Root was cleaned from

soil that attached on its surface and then weighted.

Alchemi Putri Juliantika Kusdiana, Aprizal Alamsyah, Sherly Hanifarianty, and Thomas Wijaya*

Estimation CO2 Fixation by Rubber Plantation

2nd International Conference on Agriculture, Environment and Biological Sciences (ICAEBS'15) August 16-17, 2015 Bali (Indonesia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.17758/IAAST.A0715018 16

III. ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC CARBON ( OC)

Each sample of stem, branch and leaf and root are

separated, Small amount of sample was grinded and 1 gram

of sample was taken and it was put in ceramic container and

it was put in furnace 105 oC for 2 hours, then at 300

oC for 2

hours and 550 oC for 3 hours. Sample was weighed at

105oC and 550

oC. C organic content, water content was

determined with equation as follows:

OC (%) =100 - (ash content +water content)/(van

biemelen factor)

Water content =(weight at 105 oC)/(fresh weight) x 100%

Ash content = weight at 550 oC

Van Biemelen factor = 58%=1.724

For practical application, the simple regression method was

develop to estimate the biomass and OC content. Shorrocks et

al. [5] method where they used stem girth as predictor of total

biomass weight was adopted in this experiment.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Research was inisiated by chosing tree samples from rubber

area that was going to be replanted. The tree samples were

chosed based on girth size so that the regression model to

estimate biomass can be develop with girth. Tree sample for

each clone was 10 (Figure 1)

Fig. 1 Research Activity in field. (Top) weighing and girth

measurement (Bottom) removing soil from root

From biomass weight paritioning into stem, branch, leaf and

root. After water content was known, the dry weight of

biomass was known and it was related to girth as shown in

Figure 2. Biomass weight was noteasy to measure so that

empirical model to estimate biomas weight was established by

developing regression between girth and biomass weight. The

coefficient determination were quite high for both GT I and

RRIM 600 clones (> 0.8)

Fig. 2 The relationship between total biomass weight of RRIM 600

and GT 1 clones with girth

Timber volume was also determined by assuming that stem

shape is cylindrical. The result of volume of timber

measurement is shown in Table 1.

TABLE I

THE AVERAGE VOLUME OF TIMBER PER TREE

Clone Stem (m3) Branch

(m3)

Total (m3)

RRIM 600 0.734 1.219 1.953

GT 1 0.698 0.962 1.660

Tabel 1 shows that from 10 sample trees for each clone,

RRIM 600 clone had higher volume compared to GT 1

especially in branch part as RRIM 600 produced more

branches than GT. GT 1 was more difficult to produce

branches than RRIM 600 and in practical, branch induction

was carried to promote GT 1 to produce branches and impove

the growth due to higher leaf area [6]. For economic

prespective, RRIM 600 was having higher value because it

could produce higher volume of timber. For timber purpose,

actually there was genotype (timber clone) that produced

much higher timber volume. For example, Lotfy et al.[7]

mentioned that genotype RO/OP/4-20/125 at 13 years old

could produce timber as much as 2.518 m3 per tree.

Organic carbon (OC) was part component in plant tissues,

and by determining the OC in plant tissue, the total organic

carbon in the whole tree would be known as the biomass

weight was known, the total organic carbon can be calculated.

Table 2 shows the concentration of OC and total OC for GT1

and RRIM 600 clones. The concentration of OC in stem,

branch, leaf and root were relatively the same, so the total

amount OC in plant tissue was mainly determined by the

biomass weight. RRIM 600 showed the higher OC content

2nd International Conference on Agriculture, Environment and Biological Sciences (ICAEBS'15) August 16-17, 2015 Bali (Indonesia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.17758/IAAST.A0715018 17

that mean this clone was able to fix more CO2 from air

compared with GT 1.

TABLE II

BIOMASS WEIGHT AND OC CONTENT OF RRIM 600 AND GT 1

Part Biomass

(ton) % OC

Total OC

(ton)

RRIM

600

GT

1

RRIM

600

GT

1

RRIM

600

GT

1

Stem 0.607 0.574 56.9 56.8 0.345 0.326

Branch 0.453 0.254 56.9 56.8 0.258 0.139

Leaf 0.033 0.017 56.9 56.9 0.019 0.01

Root 0.143 0.152 56.4 56.3 0.081 0.086

Total 1.236 0.997 0.703 0.561

For quick estimation of Carbon content, a simple linear

regression model was developed. Figure 3 shows the

relationship between girth and OC content of RRIM 600 and

GT 1 clone. The coeficient of determination was quite high

(> 0.8) showing that girth was good for estimation of OC

content of rubber tree, However because the branching pattern

was different among clones, the relationship must be defined

for each individual clone.

Fig. 3 The relationsship between girth and Organic content of RRIM

600 and GT 1

The estimation of CO2 fixation for 1 hectare of rubber

plantation is shown in Table 3. The population of rubber tree

was 500 trees per ha, then organic carbon can be transformed

into CO2 by multiplying with 3.66 based on molecular weight.

For 1 cycle of rubber, the amount of CO2 fixed by RRIM 600

and GT 1 were 1.288 and 1.028 ton per hectare, and the

average CO2 fixation per ha per annum were 39 and 31 ton per

ha per year.

TABLE III

CO2 FIXATION BY RUBBER FOR 1 HECTARE AREA

V. CONCLUSION

Research had found that estimation of biomass could be

carried out with girth parameter and because the organic

concentration was relatively similar among plant part, the total

carbon content could also be estimated by using girth

parameter. Since each rubber clones had different growth

characteristics, more research should be carried out for other

recommended clones.

REFERENCES

[1] Anwar C, Honggokusumo S, Wijaya T. 2010. The Impact of Climate

Change on Rubber Growth and Yield in Indonesia. The Fifth China

Rubber Conference & World Rubber Summit 2010.

[2] [CIFOR] Centre for International Forestry Research. 2010. REDD

apakah itu? Pedoman CIFOR tentang hutan, perubahan iklim, dan

REDD. Bogor: Centre for International Forestry Research.

[3] Houghton RA, Woodwell GM. 1989. Global climatic change. Scientific

American 260(4): 18-26.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0489-36

[4] Sivakumaran S, Kheong YF, Hassan J, Rahman WA. 2000. Carbon

Sequestration in Rubber: implications and economic models to fund

continued cultivation. Eds: Azwar R, Karyudi, Wibawa G,

Suryaningtyas H, Arizal R. Proceedings Indonesian Rubber

Conference and IRRDB Symposium 2000. Indonesian Rubber Research

Institute; Bogor, 12-14 September 2000. Bogor: IRRI. pp: 79-102.

[5] Shorrocks VM, Templeton JK, Iyer GC. 1965. Mineral Nurition,

growth and nutrient cycle of Hevea brasiliensis. III. The relationship

between girth and shoot weight. J. Rubb. Res. Inst. Malaysia, 27(2):

259-263.

[6] Lasminingsih M. 2009. Pembangunan kebun entres. Saptabina Usaha

Tani Karet Rakyat. Ed ke-5. Palembang: Balai Penelitian Sembawa.

Hlm 11-17.

[7] Lotfy N, Ramli, Rahaman WA. 1995. Heveawood availability in

Peninsular Malaysia. Planter’s Bulletin 224-225: 73-83.

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2nd International Conference on Agriculture, Environment and Biological Sciences (ICAEBS'15) August 16-17, 2015 Bali (Indonesia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.17758/IAAST.A0715018 18