Abstract
Large areas of the indigenous tropical forests in the southwestern part of Nigeria are being converted into agricultural lands and this has been reported to have serious implications for biodiversity and the environment. Cocoa based agroforestry is one of the common agricultural practices in this region and comparative information on the carbon storage capacity of the cocoa agroforests is generally lacking. In this study the above-ground carbon storage and partitioning in a protected primary forest were evaluated and compared with those of the two categories of cocoa agroforests (sparse and dense) identified in the area. Above-ground biomass accumulation and carbon stock varied significantly with land use type, with the primary rainforest having the highest values and sparse cocoa agroforests having the lowest. A reduction in above-ground carbon stock of 89.82% and 71.20% was observed 10 years after conversion of tropical rainforest to sparse and dense cocoa agroforests respectively.
Highlights
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the greenhouse gases and a primary agent of global warming
The summary of the Cocoa tree growth data shows that the Dense Cocoa Agroforest had higher Mean Dbh and Mean Height than the Sparse Cocoa Agroforest and there were more natural or shade trees in the Dense mixtures than in the sparse mixtures
The minimum and maximum Dbh recorded for cocoa trees in the Dense Cocoa agroforest were higher than those of the Sparse
Summary
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the greenhouse gases and a primary agent of global warming. It constitutes 72% of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gases, causing between 9% - 26% of the greenhouse effect [1]. Reference [2] reported that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from 280 ppm in the preindustrial era (1750) to 379 ppm in 2005, and is increasing by 1.5 ppm per year. Forest ecosystem plays very important role in the global carbon cycle. It stores about 80% of all above-ground and 40% of all below-ground terrestrial organic carbon [3]. The state of tropical forests has continued to deteriorate
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