Carbon stock in agroforestry coffee plantations with different shade trees in Villa Rica, Peru

Abstract

Agroforestry has become an important land use type in Central and South America. It is important to study agroforestry systems because of their ability to sequester carbon. This study investigates plantations that are located in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes, and it evaluates the aboveground and soil carbon storage of agroforestry coffee plantations with different dominant shading trees, including Inga spp., Pinus spp. (both 15 years old) and Eucalyptus spp. (7 years old). These agroforestry systems were also compared to a coffee plantation without shading trees. Biomass and carbon were estimated for trees and coffee shrubs using allometric equations. Soil (within depth of 30 cm) and litter carbon were estimated using field sampling and laboratory analyses. The total carbon stock for the site dominated by Inga spp. was 119.9 ± 19.5 Mg ha−1, while for the sites dominated by Pinus spp. it was 177.5 ± 14.1 Mg ha−1 and for the site dominated by Eucalyptus spp. it was 162.3 ± 18.2 Mg ha−1. In the Sun coffee site the ecosystem carbon stock was 99.7 ± 17.2 Mg ha−1. Most carbon was fixed in the soil compartment (57–99 %), followed by aboveground tree biomass (23–32 %), tree belowground biomass (8–9 %), coffee shrubs (0.2–2 %) and litter (1 %).