Carbon stock potential of Sekele Mariam forest in North Western Ethiopia: an implication for climate change mitigation

Abstract

Forest plays a crucial role in climate change mitigation by sequestering and retaining carbon in above and below-ground biomass of trees, dead tree and deadwood biomass, litter biomass, and soil. Thus the study was conducted to estimate the carbon stock potential of the Sekele Mariam forest, North Western Ethiopia. The field data were collected through systematic random sampling techniques from the 20 m × 20 m area of 48 sample plots. The above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, dead tree, and deadwood biomass of the study area were collected from 20 m × 20 m area of the main plot, while the soil sample and litter biomass was collected from 1 m × 1 m area of subplots, which located at the four corners and one at the center of the main plot. The carbon stock of different carbon pools was estimated using different selective allometric and mathematical models and analyzed by statistical package for social science (SPSS) software version 21. The result showed that the mean carbon stock of each carbon pool such as above-ground carbon, below-ground carbon, dead tree, and deadwood carbon, litter carbon, and soil organic carbon accounted for about 362.72, 72.55, 3.43, 2.01, and 179.68 t/ha, respectively. The carbon stock variation along altitudinal gradients indicated altitude had no statistically significant effect on any of the carbon pools of the study area at α (0.05). The ultimate result showed that the study area stored and sequestered 620.39 t carbon per ha and 2776.83 t CO2 equivalents per ha, respectively.