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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Marion PfeiferORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Despite the potential of tropical montane forests to store and sequester substantial amounts of carbon,little is known about the above ground biomass (AGB) and the factors affecting it in these ecosystems,especially in Africa. We investigated the height-diameter allometry, AGB, and related differences inAGB to taxonomic and structural forest attributes in three distinct forest types (dry, mixed species andelfin) in three mountains of northern Kenya. We established 24 permanent plots (20 m 100 m) andsampled all trees 10 cm diameter following standard Rainfor protocols.We identified that different height-diameter allometric models could be used for different foreststypes, with the exception of the Michaelis–Menten model. In our study area, model choice had littleeffects on AGB estimates.In general, mixed forests had greater AGB than other forest types: in Mt Nyiro AGB estimates were 611,408 and 241 Mg ha1 for mixed, elfin and dry forests respectively. Forests in Mt Nyiro, the highest mountainhad greater AGB than in the other mountains. In our study area, differences in AGB were related toforest structure attributes, with little influence of taxonomic attributes. The mixed and elfin forests in MtNyiro, dominated by Podocarpus latifolius and Faurea saligna contained comparable AGB to lowland rainforests,highlighting the importance of tropical montane forests as large carbon stock, which could bereleased if converted to another land cover type.
Author(s): Cuni-Sanchez A, Pfeifer M, Marchant R, Calders K, Sorensen CL, Pompeu PV, Lewis SL, Burgess ND
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Forest Ecology and Management
Year: 2017
Volume: 399
Pages: 235-246
Print publication date: 01/09/2017
Online publication date: 02/06/2017
Acceptance date: 16/05/2017
Date deposited: 06/06/2017
ISSN (print): 0378-1127
ISSN (electronic): 1872-7042
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.05.030
DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2017.05.030
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