Allometry of Biomass and Carbon Stock of Planted

Eucalyptus grandis Forest in Toba Highland

Onrizal

, Rudi Hartono

and Cecep Kusmana

Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Tridharma Ujung No. 1 Kampus USU, Medan, Indonesia

Faculty of Forestry, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Bogor, Indonesia

Keywords: Allometry, Forest Biomass, Forest Carbon, Plantation Forest, Toba Highland.

Abstract: Forest plantations are not only for harvesting wood products; however they could play an important role in

climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration and fixation. This research aimed to create the

allometry equation for estimating aboveground biomass and carbon of planted Eucalyptus grandis forest in

Toba Plateau with harvesting method. The research showed that the biomass and carbon stock of planted E.

grandis increased following logarithmic model. The best allometry equations for aboveground biomass and

carbon stock of planted E. grandis were W

= 0.0678D

2.5794

98.8%) and C

= 0.0266D

2.6470

98.0%), respectively. Therefore, the above ground biomass and carbon storage of planted E. grandis could

be estimated only by measuring tree diameter (D) in the field that it is very beneficial both time and cost in

estimating the carbon storage in the plantation forests.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the global warming issues, carbon absorption by

forest ecosystem receives considerable attention

(Payn et al., 2015). Forests were recorded as main

element of the carbon sink in the global ecosystem

(Romijn, 2015) and they mostly influence the lives

of human societies as well as other organisms.

Forest plantation received significantly attention to

reducing carbon dioxide (CO

) from atmosphere

(Payn et al., 2015; Payn et al., 2014).

Forest biomass could provide estimation of

carbon storage in forest vegetation. Based on forest

biometrics, allometry equation can be used to

estimate forest biomass and carbon. In this case, the

validity of carbon estimation (Manuri et al., 2017) in

both natural and planted forest is one important key

in valuing the capacity of forests in mitigating

warming (Ellison et al., 2017). Therefore, it is

important to create the tools or model to estimate the

forest carbon.

Forest plantations in Toba plateau are dominated

with planting Eucalyptus, including E. grandis. The

planted E. grandis forests in Toba highland are

managed by PT Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk (PT TPL) as

raw material for pulping industry. The main

objective of this research was to develop allometric

equation of aboveground biomass and carbon stock

of planted E. grandis forests in Toba plateau, North

Sumatra.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Field research was carried at Tele Sector as part of

PT TPL planted forest concession. The sites

distributed with varied elevation from 1,600 to 1,700

m above sea level. The mean of annual rainfall in the

area was 1,002.2 mm in period of 2005-2006

(PT TPL, 2006). The minimum of monthly rainfall

during this period was 23.2 mm in May, and the

maximum was 166.3 mm in July (Figure 1).

Six study sites were selected at different age-

stand of planted E. grandis forests. Then, 10 plots of

10 x 10 m in each study site were established based

on some guidelines and publications (Heriyanto et

al., 2002; Onrizal, 2004; Onrizal et al., 2005). For

each sub-plot, we measured the stem diameter at

1.3m height (D) and tree height of all trees. After

tree inventory, totally 18 trees were cut using

clipping techniques based on stratified random

sampling with diameter class as the basis of

stratification. The stem of the sample cut trees was

divided into horizons of 1 m long. From each

horizon, a fresh weight of each morphological tree

compartment, i.e. stem, branch, leaf, and flower and

Onrizal, ., Hartono, R. and Kusuma, C.

Allometry of Biomass and Carbon Stock of Planted Eucalyptus grandis Forest in Toba Highland.

DOI: 10.5220/0010102401290131

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

129-131

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

129

fruit, were separately weighed. A small amount

sample of each tree compartment was taken and

dried in an oven at 80

C for 48 hours to obtain the

constant dry weight (Onrizal, 2004). Carbon content

of each tree compartment was analyzed by CN

analyzer.

100

120

140

160

180

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Rainfall (mm)

15.0

15.5

16.0

16.5

17.0

17.5

18.0

18.5

19.0

Temperature Average (oC)

Rainfall

Temp. Average

Figure 1: Distribution of monthly precipitation and

temperature in study site.

In terms of aboveground tree biomass and carbon

were estimated using simple allometry equation in

the form of Y = aX

, where Y is dry weight

(biomass) or carbon of tree components, X is

predictor variable (D), a is Y intercept, and b is

regression coefficient.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Tree diameter (D) of planted E. grandis significantly

increased following the stand age (Figure 2). Based

on carbon content analyses by CN Analyzer showed

that the carbon content of E. grandis tree part was

44.92% of biomass with varying from 36.72 to

54.01% of biomass.

Allometry expressions of each above-ground

morphological tree compartment both biomass and

carbon follows logarithmic function with high

correlation for each part of trees. In this case, the

aboveground biomass and carbon stock of planted E.

grandis were significant correlation to the single

predictor, i.e. tree diameter (D) as shown at Table 1

and 2.

Table 3 shows the allometry coefficients which

were calculated from the allometry relations

between the biomass of various tree compartments

on tree diameter (D) for some tree species in tropical

region. Comparison of planted E. grandis forests

stand’s allometry coefficients obtained with those

reported for some trees shows that the allometry

coefficient “b” of total above-ground biomass for

planted E. grandis forests stand in study area was

comparable to that tropical tree species, such as

general tropical tree species, rubber tree (Hevea

brasiliensis), and non-rubber tree in the tropic.

Figure 2: Tree diameter of planted E. grandis plantation at

Toba plateau followed the stand age.

Table 1: Allometry biomass coefficient (W

= a*D

) of

every tree-parts of planted E. grandis plantations in Toba

plateau

Tree part

Coefficient R

(%)

a b

1. Stem 0.0436 2.6883 98.28 98.17

Branch 0.0228 2.0779 82.03 80.90

3. Leaf 0.5775 0.6549 31.73 27.47

Aboveground 0.0678 2.5794 98.80 98.73

Table 2: Allometry carbon stock coefficient (C

= a*D

)

of every tree-parts of planted E. grandis plantations in

Toba plateau

No. Tree part

Coefficient R

(%)

a b

1. Stem 0.0176 2.7511 97.40 97.24

2. Brach 0.0097 2.0848 83.66 82.64

3. Leaf 0.2167 0.7199 35.08 31.02

4. Abovegroun

0.0266 2.6470 98.04 97.92

Table 3: The allometry coefficient of aboveground

morphological compartment biomass on tree diameter (D)

for some tree species in tropical region

ree Species

Coefficient*

a b

1. Rubber tree (H. brasiliensis)

[#]

0.095 2.62 99.6

. Non-rubber tree

[#]

0.091 2.59 99.6

. E. grandis

[$]

0.068 2.58 98.8

*Allometry coefficients were calculated from the

allometry equation W

= a*D

[#]

= Pamoengkas et al.

(2000);

[$]

= this study

Based on Table 3, the aboveground biomass

(ABG) of planted E. grandis was similar than the

planted forest in tropical lowland region. It means

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

130

that the planted E. grandis forest is potential activity

to carbon sequestration in the tropical highland.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the results, we were able to provide

allometry equations that it was suitable for

estimating the biomass and carbon stock of E.

grandis plantation forests. Aboveground biomass

and carbon stock of E. grandis plantation forests

showed a very significant relation with tree diameter

at breast height (D) which forms a logarithmic

function. Therefore, the aboveground biomass and

carbon stock of E. grandis plantation forests could

estimate easily.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We express our gratitude to Director General Higher

Education, National Education Ministry which

funded under PEKERTI grant scheme in Fiscal Year

of 2006 and 2007. We would also like to

acknowledge the PT TPL Tbk officers for their

cooperation and assistance in fieldwork. Special

thanks to Ecology Laboratory, Research Center for

Biology, Indonesia Institute of Sciences for tree

carbon analyses by CN Analyzer.

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