Tarrazú, 2009

Estimating Above Ground Biomass, and Above ground and Soil Carbon

Contents in different Land Uses

Why?:- Create a baseline to compare the

performance of different land uses as carbon sinks

- Define strategies to optimize our (agro)ecoystems: Production and Carbon Sequestration

- Create Potential Scenarios if forest is conserved

Important:

The ideal is to estimate carbon fixation rates!... It is very difficult though

Study Site

An Agricultural Landscape:- Coffee- Diary and meat cattle- Fruit orchards- Different Forest Types

(structure and composition)- Mixed use types

Site selection:

- Stratify Random Sampling- By land use/land cover

- By Forest type

What are we measuring (indirectly):

- Biomass (kg/ha) Carbon (Mg C/ha)- Phytomass (living plants, example:

Trees, herbs, palms, shrubs)- Necromass (litter, dead plants: trunks,

rotting leaves and branches- Soils (10cm depth)

Sampling Units:Circular plots

Radius m

DBH cm

12.6 >50

8 ………….

=< 50 and > 15

4 < 15

Tree/Plant Variables:- Species - Height….

- Equipment: Clinometer- DBH: Diameter at breast height (cm)

- Breast height 1.3m- Equipment: diametric tape

Biomass: f(DBH, height) using allometric eq.

Tree/Plant Variables (plants with DBH<5cm):

- Species - Fresh weight (g)- Dry weight (g)

Tree/Plant Variables (plants with DBH<5cm) (2)

- Use 1m x 1m frame

- Identify dominating plant (grass/broad leaf herbs / bush)

- Harvest all the plants and weight

- Gather subsample (300g) and oven dry

- Weight dry weight

S

E

N

W4

Necromass

- Fresh weight (g)- Dry weight (g)

Necromass (2)- Use 1m x 1m

frame

- Harvest all necromass in frame and weight

- Gather subsample (300g) and oven dry

- Weight dry weight

S

E

N

W4

Soils Organic Matter Contents (10cm depth)- Soil Organic Matter (%)

Soil Organic matter- Use soil auger- Take 10 sub

samples distributed through the plot

- Mix in a bag- Send to a lab