Since the 1990’s, afforestation programs in the páramo have been implemented to offset carbon emissions through carbon sequestration, mainly using pine plantations. However, several studies have indicated that after the establishment of pine plantations in grasslands, there is an alteration of carbon pools including a decrease of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the establishment of pine plantations on the carbon stocks in different altitudes of the páramo ecosystem of South Ecuador. At seven locations within an elevational gradient from 2780 to 3760 m a.s.l., we measured and compared carbon stocks of three types of land use: natural grassland, grazed páramo, and Pinus patula Schlltdl. & Cham. plantation sites. For a more accurate estimation of pine tree carbon, we developed our own allometric equations. There were significant (p < 0.05) differences between the amounts of carbon stored in the carbon pools aboveground and belowground for the three types of land use. In most of the locations, pine plantations revealed the highest amounts of aboveground and belowground carbon (55.4 and 6.9 tC/ha) followed by natural grassland (23.1 and 2.7 tC/ha) and grazed páramo sites (9.1 and 1.5 tC/ha). Concerning the SOC pools, most of the locations revealed significant lower values of plantations’ SOC in comparison to natural grassland and grazed páramo sites. Higher elevation was associated with lower amounts of pines’ biomass. Even though plantations store high amounts of carbon, natural páramo grassland can also store substantial amounts above and belowground, without negatively affecting the soils and putting other páramo ecosystem services at risk. Consequently, plans for afforestation in the páramo should be assessed case by case, considering not only the limiting factor of elevation, but also the site quality especially affected by the type of previous land use.

中文翻译：

---

松树种植对厄瓜多尔南部帕拉莫场址碳储量的影响

自1990年代以来，帕拉莫州实施了植树造林计划，主要通过使用松树人工林进行固碳来抵消碳排放。然而，一些研究表明，在草原上建立松树人工林后，碳库发生了变化，包括土壤有机碳（SOC）库的减少。这项研究的目的是调查松树人工林的建立对南厄瓜多尔帕拉莫生态系统不同高度的碳储量的影响。在海拔2780至3760 m asl的七个位置上，我们测量并比较了三种类型的土地利用的碳储量：天然草地，放牧的帕拉莫河和Pinus patula Schlltdl。和湛。人工林。为了更准确地估算松树碳，我们开发了自己的异速方程。对于三种土地利用方式，地上和地下碳库中存储的碳量之间存在显着（p <0.05）差异。在大多数地区，松树种植园的地上和地下碳含量最高（55.4和6.9 tC / ha），其次是天然草地（23.1和2.7 tC / ha）和放牧的帕拉莫地区（9.1和1.5 tC / ha）。关于SOC池，大多数位置显示出的人工林SOC值比天然草地和放牧的páramo站点低得多。海拔越高，松树的生物量越少。即使人工林存储大量碳，天然的帕拉莫草原也可以在地下和地下存储大量碳，不会对土壤造成负面影响，也不会给其他帕拉莫生态系统服务带来风险。因此，不仅要考虑海拔的限制因素，还要考虑场地质量，特别是受先前土地用途类型影响的场地质量，以便逐案评估帕拉莫的绿化计划。