Alternatives to estimate biomass and carbon in Atlantic Forest fragment in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Biomass quantification in the Atlantic Forest is difficult due to a scarcity of destructive tree sampling data for this biome.Many studies have used general pantropical models to quantify their biomass stocks. However, doubts still need to be raised about the ability of these models to accurately estimate the biomass of trees in the Atlantic Forest biome. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate and test the performance of allometric equations with different input variables to estimate biomass and accumulated carbon in dominant species in an Atlantic Forest fragment in northeastern Brazil. A recent study in the area, with 1,324 inventoried trees, was used to obtain the phytosociological and dendrometric data needed to analyze forest biomass. We selected five pantropical allometric equations with good reproducibility for humid tropical forests and a local equation (Atlantic Forest) to calculate above-ground biomass (AGB). The input variables used were tree diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height (H), wood density (p), and bioclimatic variables (E) (water stress and rainfall). The findings support the conclusion that there is a significant difference between the six equations tested to estimate biomass and carbon in the forest fragment.Therefore, if H, DBH, and density data are available after the forest inventory of the area, the pantropical equation can be used to quantify the AGB. Otherwise, the local equation is a viable alternative. These results can help elaborate environmental projects targeting the carbon market and enabling the forest for REDD+ projects