Planting design, survival and blue carbon stock of mangrove plantations in Banacon Island, Philippines

Mangrove forests have the capacity to store and sequester vast amount of atmospheric carbon. Coastal reforestation in the tropics became more popular because of this ecosystem service and their value to protect human from the impacts of tsunami and storm surge. To illustrate mangrove’s blue carbon potential in view of planting design, carbon stock assessment of 20-year old Rhizophora stylosa plantations was done. Tree and sediment carbon stocks were determined using standard nested plot technique. These parameters were further examined in terms of the plant spacing used during the plantation establishment, namely: 0.5m x 0.5m; and 1.0m x 1.0m. Key findings showed that plantations that were established with closer spacing i.e. 0.5m x 0.5m spacing have higher stand density values than those with 1.0m x 1.0m interval by about 23,900 trees ha-1. Survival rate was also significantly higher in the former than the latter with a mean difference of 23%. In view of total carbon stocks, 0.5m x 0.5m spaced stands contain 276.8±11.6 tC ha-1, of which sediment has contributed about 110.1 tC ha-1 (40%). On the other hand, stands of 1.0m x 1.0m spacing have only 157.6±40.1 tC ha-1, wherein 21.3 tC ha-1 (48.2%) is attributable to sediments. Overall findings suggested that planting at a closer spacing (0.5m distance) could produce larger sediment carbon stock. A significant mean difference of 88.80 tC ha-1 was computed in favor of 0.5m x 0.5m stand, which is indicative of two possible reasons: a) thicker vegetation provides larger source organic material through litterfall; b) more interlinked roots help stabilize sediment from erosion while effectively trapping more organic material from other sources during tidal movements. ID: 3477110

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Gevaña, D. T., Im, S.
Format:	Article biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	FAO ; 2022
Online Access:	https://openknowledge.fao.org/handle/20.500.14283/CC1755EN http://www.fao.org/3/cc1755en/cc1755en.pdf
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