Assessing the carbon budgets of large leaf mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla king) and Dipterocarp plantations in the Mt. Makiling forest reserve, Philippines

This study determined the potential of tree plantations to sequester atmospheric carbon by measuring the amount of carbon stored in its biomass. The study involved a Dipterocarp and large leaf Mahogany stands located in Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve (MFR), Philippines. The carbon pools investigated included: above-ground biomass (trees, understorey/herbaceous vegetation), ground-biomass (litter and coarse woody debris), and below-ground biomass (roots and soil). Results showed that Mahogany stand has a total biomass of 605.25 t ha-1 while the Dipterocarp stand has 563.93 t ha-1. However, in terms of carbon content in its biomass, Mahogany has a lower value of 542.05 t C ha-1 than the value of 639.81 t C ha-1 for Dipterocarp stand. Estimation of biomass density to carbon accumulation per sink for both Mahogany and Dipterocarp stand showed the following results: above-ground (246.63 t C ha-1 and 248.08 t C ha-1); ground biomass (20.02 t C ha-1 and 20.46 t C ha-1); and below-ground biomass (275.40 t C ha-1 and 371.27 t C ha-1). Ranking the carbon deposits per sink, below-ground biomass has the highest carbon accumulation primarily due to its soil component.

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