INVESTIGADORES
LENCINAS Maria Vanessa
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Aboveground and belowground carbon sequestration in a silvopastoral system of Nothofagus antarctica forests in Southern Patagonia, Argentina
Autor/es:
PERI, P; MARTÍNEZ PASTUR, G; GARGAGLIONE, V; LENCINAS, MV
Lugar:
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Reunión:
Congreso; XIII Congreso Forestal Mundial; 2009
Resumen:
Deciduous Nothofagus antarctica (Forster f.) Oersted tree is a native species with a wide ecological distribution in the southern areas of Argentina and Chile (from 36° 30' to 56°00' S) and these forests were managed as silvopastoral systems (trees growing with natural pastures in the same unit of land to feed cattle). These forests could be efficient carbon (C) sink ecosystems. However, there are few estimates of C storage for these forests under a silvopastoral use. The aim of this work was to quantify the aboveground and belowground C sequestration for different components of trees (leaves, small branches, whiteness, duramen, rot, bark and roots) and pasture (green and dead leaves, pseudo-stem and roots), and the C storage in floor litter and different mineral soil horizons (0-0.6 m) in a N. antarctica silvopastoral system grown in Southern Patagonia (51º 39´ SL; 72º 01´ WL). For this, samples of trees, pasture and soil were taken from three different stands in 150 m2 plots (mean dominant tree height of 7.8 m, stocking of 180 trees.ha-1 and mean age of 195 years old). The C concentration was higher in the tree component of rot (55.3%) and lower in the dead leaves component of pasture (40.5%). The C concentration decreased from 46.9% in floor litter to 2.5% at 0.6 m mineral soil depth. At the silvopastoral stand level, the total C stored was 252 C ton.ha-1 distributed 86.7% in soil, 11.9% in trees and 1.4% in pasture. Belowground biomass represented an important C storage pool in the ecosystem with mean values of 8.9 and 2.6 C ton.ha-1 for trees and pasture roots components, respectively. Total C accumulation in trees (30.1 C ton.ha-1) followed the order duramen > coarse roots > whiteness > bark > small branches > rot > leaves > fine roots. C storage in floor litter was 7.4 C ton.ha-1, and in the mineral soil ranged from 13.6 C ton.ha-1 (horizon 0-0.03 m) to 98.6 C ton.ha-1 (horizon 0.30-0.60 m). This study improved the understanding about the potential of C sequestration of N. antarctica ecosystem under silvopatoral management, and highlight the importance of these forests efficient carbon sink ecosystems.