Carbon storage in livestock systems with and witho

Authors: Gilberto VillanuevaLópez Pablo MartínezZurimendi Fernando CasanovaLugo Luis RamírezAvilés Patricia Irene MontañezEscalante

Publish Date: 2015/08/06

Volume: 89, Issue: 6, Pages: 1083-1096

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Abstract

Agroforestry systems AFS play a major role in the sequestration of carbon C The objectives of this study were to quantify the organic C stocks in the above and belowground tree biomass and in the soil in a cattlefarming system with live fences CFSLF of Gliricidia sepium and to compare the levels with those of a cattlefarming system based on a grass monoculture CFSGM The methodology included a forest inventory in nine randomly assigned plots and the destructive sampling of G sepium 32 trees measuring for each tree the diameter at breast height DBH stem height total tree height branch weight leaf weight and coarse root weight In addition we measured grass biomass collected litterfall and collected soil samples at depths of 0–10 10–20 and 20–30 cm in the plots A logarithmic model was developed to quantify the above and belowground tree biomass The soil organic matter was determined by the dry combustion method The total carbon stored in the CFSLF was 11982 Mg C ha−1 with the G sepium trees contributing 57  of the total C 648 Mg C ha−1 The CFSGM stored 11334 Mg C ha−1 The grass biomass stored 1532 Mg C ha−1 year−1 in the CFSGM and 1568 Mg C ha−1 year−1 in the CFSLF and the litterfall in the CFSLF stored 0205 Mg C ha−1 year−1 Despite the modest contribution of G sepium trees to the C storage the total carbon accumulated in the CFSLF and CFSGM was similarWe would like to thank The College of the Southern Border for providing support to the first author during his doctoral studies in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Yucatan Mexico We are also grateful to the National Council of Science and Technology for the economic support provided during the research period

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