(Ebook) Carbon Stocks of Coarse Woody Debris in Central African Tropical Forests by Romeo Ekoungoulou, Shukui Niu, Fousseni Folega, Donatien Nzala, Xiaodong Liu

(Ebook) Carbon Stocks of Coarse Woody Debris in Central African Tropical Forests by Romeo Ekoungoulou, Shukui Niu, Fousseni Folega, Donatien Nzala, Xiaodong Liu

Coarse Woody Debris (CWD; defined here as fallen and standing dead trees and tree branches) is acritical-structural and functional component of forest ecosystems that typically comprises a largeproportion of total aboveground carbon storage. Coarse woody debris estimation for the tropics isuncommon, and little is known about how carbon storage in CWD will respond to climate change.Given the predominant role that tropical forests play in global carbon cycling, this information gapcompromises efforts to forecast climate change impacts on terrestrial carbon balance. In this study, weaimed to identify the variation in Coarse Woody Debris (CWD) stocks between forest types (Old-growthand selective logging forests) and among the plots in Ipendja mixed lowland terra firme tropicalrainforest (central Africa). The study also examined the consequence for CWD carbon stocksestimation. The study area is located in Ipendja forest management unit (UFA), close to Dongou district(Likouala Department), in Northern Republic of Congo. Data collection were done with eightrectangular plots, each 25 x 200 m (0.5 ha). The method of line intercepts sampling has been used ineach studied site. A total number of 135 CWD samples of diameter  10 cm in the studied plots havebeen recorded. It was obvious that stocks of CWD in Mokelimwaekili (mean: 19.96 Mg ha-1; sum:79.84 Mg ha-1) were higher than those of Sombo (mean: 8.9 Mg ha-1; sum: 35 Mg ha-1). There was asignificance difference in Ipendja evergreen forest about CWD stocks across two forest types andstudied plots. This finding suggests that values vary among forest types and that separate reference values should be adopted for estimates of undisturbed forest carbon stocks in the different ecosystemsin Congo basin. Different reference values represent the variability of CWD among forest types andcontribute to reducing uncertainties in current estimates of carbon stocks in central African forestecosystems.