Computational Ecology and Software (Sep 2023)
Quantifying carbon stock potential of woody plant species in Seyo watershed, South-West Ethiopia
Abstract
The carbon stock pool is a reservoir, which has the capacity to accumulate carbon through carbon stock pools. Carbon stock pools of the woody plant species encompass maily above ground and below ground biomass. Woody plant species play a crucial role for climate change mitigation by capturing atmospheric carbon through photosynthesis. The goal this study was to quantify carbon stock and climate change potential of woody plant species in Seyo watershed, south-west Ethiopia. The data was collected through systematic random sampling techniques from 20 m × 20 m area of sample plots. The carbon stocks of above ground and below ground carbon pools were quantified using different allometric models and analyzed by SPSS software. A total of 40 woody plant species were identified in the study area. The result showed that, the mean carbon stock of aboveground carbon and belowground carbon accounted about 245.07 and 49.01 t/ha respectively, which gives a total carbon stock of 294.04 t/ha. The carbon stock of woody plant species showed that, Acacia abyssinica and Maytenus arbutifolia had the largest and the least carbon reserves, which accounted 31.2 and 0.13 t/ha respectively. The study area was mitigated about 1079.13 ton/ha CO2 equivalent. The ultimate result showed that, Seyo watershed is a reservoir of high carbon stock. To sustain and enhance the carbon stock potential of this watershed, the government should be integrated the watershed clean development mechanism of carbon trading system of the Kyoto protocol.
