Abstract
The role of forest plantations in carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation is a topical issue among researchers and policymakers globally. This study compares understorey floristic diversity and carbon stock of a 15-year-old monoculture Tectona grandis plantation under intensive and poor management in a dry semideciduous ecological zone of Ghana. The study employed a nested plot design with twelve (12) 50 m × 50 m plots laid at 50 m intervals along a diagonal line transect on both study sites for the sampling of Tectona grandis trees. Understorey trees, shrubs, and climbers were sampled within 10 m × 10 m subplot, whilst grasses and herbs were sampled within 1 m × 1 m quadrats. The study revealed a significantly higher understorey species diversity in the intensively managed plantation (Shannon index; species richness) compared with that of the poorly managed plantation. Similarly, total biomass (189.80 ± 1.846 Mg/ha) and carbon stock (94.90 ± 0.92 Mg C/ha) in the intensively managed plantation were observed to be significantly higher than the poorly managed plantation (biomass: 138.54 ± 3.70 Mg/ha; carbon stock: 64.27 ± 1.85 Mg C/ha), whiles the species composition between the two sites was different (Sorenson’s similarity index: 0.47). The study, therefore, concludes that silvicultural forest management interventions improve the understorey floristic diversity and carbon stock in monoculture plantations. Consequently, the study recommends the adoption of silvicultural interventions in plantation management in Ghana to improve their contributions to carbon sequestration and floristic diversity conservation.
Highlights
Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the most prominent environmental challenges in the 21st century [1].ese challenges have received critical global attention with many governments, researchers, and policymakers debating and developing innovative measures to ensure a balance between conservation, climate mitigation, and development goals [2, 3]
A total of 84 understorey species distributed over 35 families were identified in the intensively and poorly managed Tectona grandis plantations
The broadleaf morphology of Tectona grandis provides enough canopy cover in the poorly managed plantation until latter stages of the dry season where environmental conditions may be unsuitable for the regeneration of understorey species [4, 50]. ese results are consistent with the findings of many empirical studies that have reported the positive response of understorey species to forest canopy disturbance through pruning and thinning and long-term succession and recovery of degraded forest ecosystems [4, 10, 47, 48]
Summary
Climate change and biodiversity loss are among the most prominent environmental challenges in the 21st century [1].ese challenges have received critical global attention with many governments, researchers, and policymakers debating and developing innovative measures to ensure a balance between conservation, climate mitigation, and development goals [2, 3]. Many researchers have argued that a collective global effort aimed at arresting deforestation and forest degradation together with massive reforestation and afforestation can play an essential role in addressing these challenges [5, 6], through the sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere and conservation of biodiversity. Despite this recognized potential and considerable global efforts towards forest conservation, vast areas of natural forests continue to be converted into other land uses annually [1]. With the continuous increase in global demand for timber and depletion of limited natural forests, many countries have
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