Carbon storage of harvest-age teak (Tectona grandis) plantations, Panama

Reforestation is being considered as a mitigation option to reduce the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and predicted climate change. Forestry-based carbon storage projects are being introduced in many tropical countries, and assessment of carbon storage potentials is made difficult by a lack of species-level information. We measured above- and belowground biomass and tissue carbon content of 20-year-old teak (Tectona grandis) trees in four Panamanian plantations to estimate carbon storage potential. A regression relating diameter at breast height (DBH) to total tree carbon storage was constructed and used to estimate plantation-level tree carbon storage, which averaged 120 t/ha. Litter, undergrowth and soil compartments were estimated to contain 3.4, 2.6 and 225 t C/ha, respectively. The soil carbon was a one-time measurement, not an estimate of soil C accumulation. We estimate carbon storage in Panamanian harvest-age teak plantations to be 351 t C/ha. Various methods of calculation of carbon storage in short-rotation plantations are discussed. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.