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Reforestation of agricultural land in the tropics: The relative contribution of soil, living biomass and debris pools to carbon sequestration
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Reforestation of agricultural land in the tropics: The relative contribution of soil, living biomass and debris pools to carbon sequestration

Tom Lewis, Luke Verstraten, Bruce W Hogg, Bernhard J Wehr, Scott A Swift, Neil W Tindale, N W Menzies, Ram C Dalal, Philippa H Bryant, Benjamin Francis, …
Science of the Total Environment, Vol.649, pp.1502-1513
2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.351
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.351View
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Abstract

restoration planting soil organic carbon litter tree biomass organic matter rainforest ecosystem carbon stocks
Tropical regions of the world experience high rates of land-use change and this has a major influence on terrestrial carbon (C) pools and the global C cycle. We assessed land-use change from agriculture to reforested plantings (with endemic species), up to 33 years of age, using 10 paired sites in the wet tropics, Australia. We determined the impacts on 0-50 cm below-ground C (soil organic C (SOC), charcoal C, humic organic C, particulate organic C, resistant organic C), C stored in roots (fine and coarse), C stored in living above-ground biomass and debris C pools. Reforested areas accumulated ecosystem C at a rate of 7.4 Mg ha-1 yr-1. Reforestation plantings contained, on average, 2.3 times more ecosystem C than agricultural areas (102 Mg ha-1 and 233 Mg ha-1, respectively). Most of the C accumulation was in living above-ground and below-ground biomass (60 and 30%, respectively) with a smaller amount in debris pools (16%). Apart from C in roots, soil C accumulation was not obvious across sites ranging from 8 to 33 years since reforestation, relative to the agricultural baseline. Differences in SOC (and associated SOC pools) to a depth of 50 cm, did exist between reforested areas and adjacent agriculture at some sites, however there was not a consistent trend in SOC associated with reforestation. Local site-based factors (e.g. soil texture and mineralogy, land-use history and microbial activity) appear to have a strong influence on the direction of the change in SOC. While reforestation in the tropics has great potential to accumulate C in biomass in living vegetation, and debris pools, it is likely to take approximately 50 years before C stocks of reforested areas resemble natural ecosystems. Accumulation of SOC through reforestation is difficult to achieve, highlighting the need to conserve carbon pools in remnant forests in the tropics.

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