Carbon stock estimation for coarse woody debris in a northern Republic of Congo?s forest
Abstract
Romeo Ekoungoulou*, Bienfaite Jariya Bamissamou, Saint Fedriche Ndzaï, Fousseni Folega, Chrisveil de Ben-Mack Mbouilou, Jafrel Loïck Bikouta and Felix Koubouana
Coarse Woody Debris (CWD) is an important carbon store in tropical forest ecosystems. The study carried out in the Ipendja forest in the Likouala Department, Republic of Congo, aimed to improve knowledge of forest ecosystem functioning. The research was carried out in six rectangular plots, each 5000 m2 (i.e. 200m × 25m) with a total of 149 CWD sampled. All individuals with diameter ?10 cm were inventoried for coarse woody debris carbon stock estimation. Standing dead trees (snags) and fallen dead trees and branches (logs) were recorded. The results of this study revealed that the average stock of coarse woody debris was 16.55 t ha-1, with a stock of 33.09 t C ha-1 in the logs plots, and that of dry mass in the snags was 2.99 t ha-1, with a storage rate of 1.49 t C ha-1. This study has shown that windthrow plays a key role in the production of large coarse woody debris. Carbon stocks in this study area revealed that fallen dead trees and branches on the ground has a higher carbon content than standing dead trees.