Direct estimation of carbon stock from standing trees at campus forest inderalaya, sriwijaya university, south sumatra, indonesia

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY DIRECT ESTIMATION OF CARBON STOCK FROM STANDING TREES AT CAMPUS FOREST INDERALAYA, SRIWIJAYA UNIVERSITY, SOUTH SUMATRA, IN

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY

DIRECT ESTIMATION OF CARBON STOCK FROM STANDING TREES AT CAMPUS FOREST INDERALAYA, SRIWIJAYA

UNIVERSITY, SOUTH SUMATRA, INDONESIA

BACHELOR THESIS

Study Mode : Full-time

Major : Environmental Science and Management

Faculty : International Training and Development Center Batch : K44 - AEP (2012-2016)

Thai Nguyen, 20/09/2016

TRAN CONG PHONG

DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry Degree Program Bachelor of Environment Science and Management

Thesis Tittle “Direct estimation of carbon stock from standing trees at

campus forest Inderalaya, Sriwijaya University, South

Sumatra, Indonesia”

Supervisors 1. Dr Iskhaq Iskandar1

2 Dr Duong Van Thao2

of forest carbon stocks are based upon the estimation of forest biomass This estimation will perform by direct field measurement In addition, with an area of approximately 712 hectares, Unsri campus is not larger area and accession It will

be accurate and precise when using field measurement The study has successfully presented the storing of carbon in different types of vegetation in Unsri Campus and also reflecting the reality of vegetation in there

Keywords Above-ground biomass; Carbon stock; Biomass estimation;

Field measurements; Unsri; Carbon pool

Supervisor’s

Signature

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fortunately, I have a precious internships opportunity to learning and professional development in Department of Biology in Sriwijaya University (UNSRI), Inderalaya and PPLH office in Palembang

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and special thanks

to my supervisor Dr Iskhaq Iskandar of Department of Physics, Faculty of

Mathematics and Natural Science in Unsri and Dr Duong Van Thao of The

Advanced Education Program, Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry (TUAF), Vietnam, Who took time out to hear, guide, support and encourage me on the correct path and allowing me to carry out my study to have successful results Especially, their priceless advices are not a small contribution in orienting my career and future

Moreover, I would like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role of

my advisers Agus Dwi Saputra and Guntur Pragustiadi for giving necessary advices

and guidance, helping me during the experiment and completing my thesis, let me come out to know so many new things in Indonesia Additionally, I would like to thank all staff of PPLH office and Indonesian friends who has supported me and having the best moments while I was conducting my research in Palembang, Indonesia

Last but not least, thanks to my parents and friends who always encourage and put

me forward and offer support and love

Sincerely,

Tran Cong Phong

TABLE OF CONTENT Error! Bookmark not defined

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.2: List of allometric equations used to estimate biomass of various

vegetations

25

Table 4.1: Parameters of each forest types in the study site 28

LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 2.1: Approximative values of the carbon content (tonnes per hectare)

for various vegetation types

11

Figure 3.3: Sample plots for measurement of biomass and carbon stocks 20 Figure 3.4: Diagram of measuring smaller tree diameter using d-tape (A) and

caliper (B)

22

Figure 3.5: Guide for determining DBH for abnormal trees 22 Figure 3.6: Category deadwood considering the amount of carbon left 23 Figure 4.1 Carbon densities of six typical forests in UNSRI campus Vertical

bars are standard errors of the mean

30,31

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Allometric equation – the forest-biomass inventory technique for dry biomass

determination It has been developed by establishing a relationship between the various physical parameters of the trees such as the diameter at breast height, height of the tree trunk, branch, total height of the tree, crown diameter, tree species

Biomass – the total amount of living organic matter in trees expressed as oven dry

tons per unit area

Forest plantation – a forest established by planting or seeding in the process of

afforestation and reforestation consisting of introduce or indigenous species

Carbon stock – the absolute quantity of carbon held within a pool at a specified time

In the study carbon stock is use to imply the amount of carbon stored by different types of standing vegetation that represent the flora of Sriwijaya University campus

Carbon pool – a reservoir or a system which has the capacity to accumulate or release

carbon Examples of carbon pools are forest biomass, wood products, soils and the atmosphere The units are kg ha-1 or Mg ha-1

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

379 ppm in 2005 (IPPC, 2007) The rise in the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere

is mainly caused by anthropogenic activities Deforestation is having a considerable impact on the ability of the terrestrial biosphere to emit or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Deforestation and degradation of forests lead to emission of carbon dioxide through the burning of forest biomass which is the most important carbon sinks of the terrestrial ecosystem

Indonesia is on track to become the world's third-largest greenhouse gas polluter this year, surpassing India, as raging forest and land fires pump out huge volumes of carbon dioxide and thick smoke About 75 per cent of Indonesia's emissions come from deforestation, peatland clearance and peat fires every year (Fogarty, 2015)

With regard to the mitigation of climate change impacts, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere must be controlled by increasing the amount of CO2 uptake by plants as much as possible and suppress the release (emission) of CO2 into the atmosphere as low as possible So maintaining the integrity of natural forests and planting trees is very important to reduce the amount of excess CO2 in the air (Hairiah & Rahayu, 2007)

One of the efforts to mitigate climate change is reducing deforestation that damage

to the forest where forest ecosystem plays a very important role in the global carbon cycle by sequestering a substantial amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere Other efforts can be done by adding, strengthen or expand the system that serves as an absorbent and the natural carbon storage (sink) such as forests, so that greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere can be captured, absorbed and stored back into the trees When trees are cut down, the carbons stored in them are released back and re-accumulate in the atmosphere (Hadad, 2010) Carbon put away in the earth through living creatures, dead natural matter or silt like fossils of plants and creatures However, deforestation the release of carbon into the atmosphere also occurs as much

as the level of forest destruction

Sriwijaya University campus (Unsri) in Inderalaya has an area of roughly 712 hectares located 38 kilometers to the south of Palembang This includes the lowland area consists of terrestrial and marsh area This campus has been used for academic activities since 1993 With the diversity and abundance of flora, Unsri campus represents the largest land area in Indonesia and even in Southeast Asia

The enormous distinction in the kind of vegetation and area sorts, Unsri grounds region is relied upon to have a well contrast inside the capacity of putting away carbon

as marshes vegetation, peat, undergrowth backwoods, ranches and arboretum zone Plot samplings were chosen in light of the above criteria keeping in mind the end goal

to speak to each diverse vegetation or area In addition, the aboveground biomass of the tree is principally the largest carbon pool as the standing trees The quantity of trees and vast width was considered for making inspecting plots

1.2 Research’s objectives

This study expects to estimation the carbon stock in standing trees in Inderalaya, South Sumatra, Indonesia On alternate hands, deciding the distinction measure of carbon was put away in different tree woods

1.3 Research questions

This study is designed to address the following questions:

How much carbon is stored in various standing tree forests in Unsri campus?

1.4 Limitations

The study technique utilizing as a part of this exploration is non-dangerous field estimation This strategy includes a ton of work, time, and asset expending, strenuous Moreover, it's difficult to perform, for example, making plots and estimation with the upsetting of living and dead verdure Thusly, it may not decisively speak to the carbon sum is put away in the trees

PART 2: LITTERATURE REVIEW

2.1 GHG Emissions Impact and Climate Change Mitigation

IPCC’s Third Assessment Report stated ‘there is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the past 50 years is attributable to human activities’ It went on to point out that ‘human influences will continue to change atmospheric composition throughout the 21st century’ (IPCC, 2001c) The greenhouse gas making the largest contribution from human activities is carbon dioxide (CO2) It

is released into the atmosphere by: the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil or natural gas, and renewable fuels like biomass; and by certain industrial and resource extraction processes

- Emissions of CO2 due to fossil fuel burning are virtually certain to be the dominant influence on the trends in atmospheric CO2 concentration during the 21st century

- Global average temperatures and sea level are projected to rise under all (…) scenarios

Climate change could be addressed with mitigation and adaptation Climate change mitigation generally involves reductions in human (anthropogenic) emissions

of greenhouse gases (GHGs) Mitigation may also be achieved by increasing the capacity of carbon sinks, e.g., through reforestation (IPCC, 2007)

The main purpose of the mitigation measures is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere so as not to disturb and harm the Earth's climate Mitigation through the reduction of GHG emissions should be done nationally and internationally in order to have an impact or effective results globally by reducing or replacing energy-oil, coal and natural gas with renewable energy such as geothermal,

solar energy, wind energy, biomass and others (Hadad, 2010) And the other important measurement is expanding forests and other "sinks" to remove greater amounts

of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Forest’s ecosystem is one of the most important carbon sinks of the terrestrial ecosystem Especially, tropical forest is stored up to about 46% of the world’s terrestrial carbon pool and about 11.55% of the world’s soil carbon pool, acting as a carbon reservoir and functioning as a constant sink of atmospheric carbon (Brown & Lugo, 1982) (Soepadmo, 1993) Forest’s vegetation takes up the carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis In this natural process, it removes the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores the carbon in the plant tissues, forest litter and soils Thus, forest ecosystem plays a very important role in the global carbon cycle by sequestering

a substantial amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere However, the overall amount of carbon stored in the world’s forest ecosystem, mainly in living biomass that was decreased as a result of deforestation, illegal logging in South and Southeast Asia Western and Central Africa, and South America

According to the FAO (2001), the highest rates of deforestation (in 106 ha/yr during the 1990s) occurred in Brazil (2.317), India (1.897), Indonesia (1.687), Sudan (1.003), Zambia (0.854), Mexico (0.646), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (0.538), and Myanmar (0.576) (Paulo & Stephan, 2005) Current emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation amount to about 25% of the enhanced greenhouse effect estimated to result from all anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases If current trends continue, tropical deforestation will release about 50% as much carbon

to the atmosphere as has been emitted from worldwide combustion of fossil fuels since the start of the industrial revolution (Paulo & Stephan, 2005)

Reducing deforestation can be a beneficial mitigation tool to enhance carbon storage A reduction in deforestation practices results in fewer carbonemissions, which would otherwise be released during the act of deforestation and allows the positive effectson the forest ecosystem to remain in function As a mitigation tool, reducing deforestation is beneficial because the trees continue to sequester the carbon

as they grow and also in the soil

Moreover, reducing deforestation is our best chance to preserve biodiversity and defend the rights of forest communities On top of that, it’s one of the quickest and most cost effective ways to curb global warming

2.2 Carbon stock

Carbon stocks which are in a system of land use are influenced by the type of vegetation A land use systems consist of tree species that have a high value wood density, biomass will be higher when compared to the land that has species with low wood density value

Ecosystems have a target number of carbon stocks between different land, depending on diversity and density of existing plants, the soil type and the way it is managed For the measurement of the amount of carbon stored in each field needs to

be done (Hairiah, Ekadinata, Sari, & Rahayu, 2011)

Carbon is also stored in the dead organic matter pool (necromass) includes dead, fallen trees and stumps, other coarse woody debris, the layer and charcoal above the soil surface The below ground biomass comprises living and dead roots, soil fauna and the microbial community There also is a large pool of organic C in various forms

of humus and other soil organic C pools Other forms of soil C are charcoal from fires

and consolidated C in the form of ironhumus pans and concreons Increasing the amount of carbon stored in a carbon pool represents the amount of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere

According to (Hairiah, Ekadinata, Sari, & Rahayu, 2011), there are four stages of how to measure carbon stocks in the forest and agricultural land, namely:

1 Know the name of the type of trees to find the value of wood density, density of wood trees on the list of trees that have been there

2 Measure the volume and biomass of all plants and dead woods that are in a land area

3 Measure the total carbon content of plants in the laboratory

4 Assess the carbon content stored on the land in question is based on the stage of 1-3

The absorptive capacity of various types of vegetation to carbon dioxide can be seen in the following figure:

Figure 2.1: Approximative values of the carbon content (tonnes per hectare)

for various vegetation types (From IPCC, 2001)

2.3 Carbon cycle

Carbon cycling is the process that transfers carbon among the earth’s systems: the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere As part of the biosphere, trees and other plants are the primary mechanisms by which carbon is transferred among different systems In the atmosphere, carbon is in the form of CO2 compound The amount of carbon stored in each ecosystem is different because of differences in the diversity and complexity of the components that make up the ecosystem (Indriyanto, 2010)

Plants pull CO2 out of the atmosphere as part of the process of photosynthesis and store it in biomass production as stem, branches, roots and leaves With more atmospheric carbon dioxide available to convert to plant matter in photosynthesis, plants were able to grow more This increased growth is referred to as carbon fertilization Then, the CO2 in vegetation is conventionally released back to the atmosphere through respiration, burning, and biomass decay In the absence of man’s interference, the carbon cycle would function as a closed cycle, fluctuating within boundaries that are ideal to sustain life Interrupting this cycle, deforestation releases unnaturally large amounts of CO2 into the carbon cycle

All components of the vegetation as trees, shrubs, lianas and epiphytes are parts of the biomass on the surface as above ground biomass pools The other pool could not fail to mention is below ground biomass that comprises living and dead roots, soil fauna and the microbial community There also is a large pool of organic C in various forms of humus and other soil organic C pools For peat land, the largest C pool is found in soil The amount of carbon stored may be larger than the existing carbon deposits on the surface (Sutaryo, 2009)

The carbon cycle was actually a complicated process and every process influence mutually (Sutaryo, 2009)

Figure 2.2: The carbon cycle in nature (Mondal, n.d)

2.4 Biomass measurements with allometric method

If we consider trees on a population scale, we see that the different dimensions of

an individual are statistically related one with another (Gould, 1966) This relation stems from the ontogenetic development of individuals which is the same for all to within the life history related variability For instance, the proportions between height and diameter, between crown height and diameter, between biomass and diameter follow rules that are the same for all trees, big or small, as long as they are growing under the same conditions (King, 1996) (Archibald & Bond, 2003) (Bohlman & O’Brien, 2006) This is the basic principle of allometry and can be used to predict a tree variable (typically its biomass) from another dimension (e.g its diameter) An allometric equation is a formula that quantitatively formalizes this relationship

According to those sentences above, it was quoted from an article (Picard, Henry, Mortier, Trotta, & Saint André, 2012), allometry is important to estimate biomass of vegetation and forest In recent decades, using allometric equation method to estimate biomass of forest is most widely

The allometric equations are developed and applied to forest inventory data to assess the biomass and carbon stocks of forests Many researchers have developed generalized biomass prediction equations for different types of forest and tree species (Vashum & Jayakumar, 2012).The allometric equations for biomass estimation are developed by establishing a relationship between the various physical parameters of the trees such as the diameter at breast height, height of the tree trunk, total height of the tree, crown diameter, tree species, etc

The relevant methods reviewed included allometric equations to estimate above and below ground biomass, soil organic carbon (SOC), understory, litter and dead wood, and gaseous states of wetland soil and water (Binh, 2015) In those pools, aboveground biomass is an important component of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) of carbon in a forest ecosystem Generally, the estimated biomass components are the above-ground live biomass with 17 allometric equations This estimate does not include understory, deadwood, root and other under-ground biomass components and therefore is likely to be an underestimate of actual levels of carbon stocks

Forest biomass can be estimated through field measurement and remote sensing and GIS methods (Vashum & Jayakumar, 2012) In field measurement, there are two methods are available which are the destructive method (harvesting and measuring the

weight of the different components of the all tree in the sample plots) and the destructive method (this method estimates the biomass of a tree without felling) Measurement of plant biomass can be done by non-destructive methods, if other plants are already known measured allometric formula Destructive method carried out

non-by researchers for the purpose of allometric formula development, especially on the types of trees that have a specific branching pattern of the unknown allometric equation in general Allometric developments are done by cutting down trees and measure the diameter, length and weight of the wet This method is also carried out at lower plants, annuals and shrubs (Hairiah, Ekadinata, Sari, & Rahayu, 2011)

Forest biomass measurements cover the entire biomass of living that are above and below the surface of trees, shrubs, palms, tree saplings and other undergrowth, creepers, lianas, epiphytes and the dead tree components with the biomass like wood and litter

2.5 Sriwijaya University

Sriwijaya University (UNSRI) was established on October 29, 1960 Now, The University has 10 faculties, in a bachelor's degree: Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Faculty of Social Science and Political Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Faculty of Computer Science, Faculty of Public Health Sriwijaya University has two main campuses, namely in Inderalaya (Ogan Ilir) and in Bukit Besar (Palembang) Bukit Besar campus Palembang breadth 32.5 acres, used as an educational facility program S0 (D3), S2 and S3, and S1 Class Palembang Main campus with an area of 712 acres Inderalaya located 38 kilometers

to the south of the city of Palembang, an Activity Center for Education bachelor's degree (S1)

With a large campus in Inderalaya (712 ha) but only about 195.06 ha of forest areas such as plantations, arboretum and swamped vegetation, forest thicket The existence of various types of vegetation and land in this area certainly has a different ability to store carbon reserves So expect Unsri Inderalaya campus has a great potential as a carbon reserve storage area and the absence of previous research in this area will require data on estimates of carbon stocks across the region with the restriction of the study by 195.06 ha

PART III: METHODS

3.1 Materials

The equipments used in the study were followed:

- 1 GPS machine (Global Positioning System)

- 1 calipers, 2 compasses

- 1 digital camera

- 2 measuring tapes (100m), 1 measuring tape (1,5m)

- 1 machete

- 1 pencil, 1 pen, 1 marker pens

- 2 plastic coils for setting up observation subplots

- 1 scales capacity of 10 kg

- 12 worksheets

- Wooden sticks 1.3 m long to measure stem height for DBH measurement

3.2 Methods

3.2.1 Study site and time

The study was conducted from March to June 2016 at Sriwijaya University, Inderalaya, Organ Ilir, South Sumatra, Indonesia, which contains diverse types of stands Forest areas cover 195.06 ha out of the total area of 712 ha A total of 6 plots were randomly selected for carbon storage assessment, covering six types of stands: Arboretum forest (plot 1); Oil palm plantation (plot 2); Rubber tree plantation (plot 3); Secondary forests (plot 4); Regenerating forest (plot 5); Acacia forest (plot 6) The location of the study area and plots was following in below the map:

Figure 3.1: Map of study area