Tropical secondary forests regenerating after shifting cultivation in the Philippines uplands are important carbon sinks

Sharif A Mukul; John L Herbohn; Jennifer Firn

doi:10.1038/srep22483

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Tropical secondary forests regenerating after shifting cultivation in the Philippines uplands are important carbon sinks

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Tropical secondary forests regenerating after shifting cultivation in the Philippines uplands are important carbon sinks

Sharif A Mukul, John L Herbohn and Jennifer Firn

Scientific Reports, Vol.6, 22483

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep22483

PMCID: PMC4782068

PMID: 26951761

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Abstract

In the tropics, shifting cultivation has long been attributed to large scale forest degradation, and remains a major source of uncertainty in forest carbon accounting. In the Philippines, shifting cultivation, locally known as kaingin, is a major land-use in upland areas. We measured the distribution and recovery of aboveground biomass carbon along a fallow gradient in post-kaingin secondary forests in an upland area in the Philippines. We found significantly higher carbon in the aboveground total biomass and living woody biomass in old-growth forest, while coarse dead wood biomass carbon was higher in the new fallow sites. For young through to the oldest fallow secondary forests, there was a progressive recovery of biomass carbon evident. Multivariate analysis indicates patch size as an influential factor in explaining the variation in biomass carbon recovery in secondary forests after shifting cultivation. Our study indicates secondary forests after shifting cultivation are substantial carbon sinks and that this capacity to store carbon increases with abandonment age. Large trees contribute most to aboveground biomass. A better understanding of the relative contribution of different biomass sources in aboveground total forest biomass, however, is necessary to fully capture the value of such landscapes from forest management, restoration and conservation perspectives.

Details

Title: Tropical secondary forests regenerating after shifting cultivation in the Philippines uplands are important carbon sinks
Authors: Sharif A Mukul (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
John L Herbohn (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Jennifer Firn (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Publication details: Scientific Reports, Vol.6, 22483; 12
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Date published: 2016
DOI: 10.1038/srep22483
ISSN: 2045-2322
PMID: 26951761; PMC4782068
Copyright note: Copyright © 2016 The Author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Organisation Unit: Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449249502621
Output Type: Journal article