Abstract

The inventory of the carbon (C) pools in Africa’s ecosystems is not well documented, although it is crucial to support climate mitigation policies. We quantified the C stocks in plant biomass, woody necromass, litter and soil (0–30 and 30–100 cm) for the five main land uses – forest, tree plantation, young and adult palm groves, croplands – of Ferralsols on the Allada plateau in southeast Benin. Forests have the highest total C stocks (389 ± 54 Mg C ha⁻¹) compared with other land uses (222 ± 33, 154 ± 6, 105 ± 2, 77 ± 3 Mg C ha⁻¹ in tree plantations, adult palm groves, young palm groves and croplands, respectively). The C stocks are higher in the biomass than in the soil (0–100 cm), e.g. in the forest, stocks were 279 ± 54 Mg C ha⁻¹ in the biomass versus 83 ± 2 Mg C ha⁻¹ in the soil. Differences of soil C stocks between land uses are low (≈ 28 Mg C ha⁻¹) and concentrated in topsoils. The structure and species diversity of the forest partly explained the variability and the high C biomass compared to tree plantations. Type of forest and plantations is important to consider in conserving C stocks in landscapes.

摘要

非洲生态系统中碳 (C) 库的清单没有很好的记录，尽管它对于支持气候减缓政策至关重要。我们量化了 Allada 上 Ferralsols 的五种主要土地用途——森林、人工林、年轻和成年棕榈林、农田——的植物生物量、木质坏死物质、枯枝落叶和土壤（0-30 和 30-100 厘米）中的碳储量贝宁东南部高原。与其他土地利用（222 ± 33、154 ± 6、105 ± 2、77 ± 3 Mg C ha ^-1在人工林、成年棕榈树林中）相比，森林的总碳储量最高（389 ± 54 Mg C ha ^-1 ） ，年轻的棕榈树林和农田，分别）。生物量中的碳储量高于土壤（0-100 cm），例如在森林中，生物量中的碳储量为 279 ± 54 Mg C ha ^-1与土壤中的83 ± 2 Mg C ha ^-1相比。土地利用之间的土壤碳储量差异很小（≈ 28 Mg C ha ^-1）并且集中在表土中。森林的结构和物种多样性部分解释了与人工林相比的变异性和高碳生物量。森林和人工林的类型对于保护景观中的碳库很重要。