Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon

Tropical deforestation for the establishment of tree cash crop plantations causes significant alterations to soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. Despite this recognition, the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tier 1 method has a SOC change factor of 1 (no SOC loss) for convers...

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Autores principales: Van Straaten, Oliver, Corre, Marife D., Wolf, Katrin, Tchienkoua, Martin, Cuellar Bautista, José Eloy, Matthews, Robin, Veldkamp, Edzo
Formato: info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Stanford University 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://repositorio.inia.gob.pe/handle/20.500.12955/1191
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504628112
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author Van Straaten, Oliver
Corre, Marife D.
Wolf, Katrin
Tchienkoua, Martin
Cuellar Bautista, José Eloy
Matthews, Robin
Veldkamp, Edzo
author_browse Corre, Marife D.
Cuellar Bautista, José Eloy
Matthews, Robin
Tchienkoua, Martin
Van Straaten, Oliver
Veldkamp, Edzo
Wolf, Katrin
author_facet Van Straaten, Oliver
Corre, Marife D.
Wolf, Katrin
Tchienkoua, Martin
Cuellar Bautista, José Eloy
Matthews, Robin
Veldkamp, Edzo
author_sort Van Straaten, Oliver
collection Repositorio INIA
description Tropical deforestation for the establishment of tree cash crop plantations causes significant alterations to soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. Despite this recognition, the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tier 1 method has a SOC change factor of 1 (no SOC loss) for conversion of forests to perennial tree crops, because of scarcity of SOC data. In this pantropic study, conducted in active deforestation regions of Indonesia, Cameroon, and Peru, we quantified the impact of forest conversion to oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), and cacao (Theobroma cacao) agroforestry plantations on SOC stocks within 3-m depth in deeply weathered mineral soils. We also investigated the underlying biophysical controls regulating SOC stock changes. Using a space-for-time substitution approach, we compared SOC stocks from paired forests (n = 32) and adjacent plantations (n = 54). Our study showed that deforestation for tree plantations decreased SOC stocks by up to 50%. The key variable that predicted SOC changes across plantations was the amount of SOC present in the forest before conversion—the higher the initial SOC, the higher the loss. Decreases in SOC stocks were most pronounced in the topsoil, although older plantations showed considerable SOC losses below 1-m depth. Our results suggest that (i) the IPCC tier 1 method should be revised from its current SOC change factor of 1 to 0.6 ± 0.1 for oil palm and cacao agroforestry plantations and 0.8 ± 0.3 for rubber plantations in the humid tropics; and (ii) land use management policies should protect natural forests on carbon-rich mineral soils to minimize SOC losses.
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spelling INIA11912022-11-21T20:31:15Z Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon Van Straaten, Oliver Corre, Marife D. Wolf, Katrin Tchienkoua, Martin Cuellar Bautista, José Eloy Matthews, Robin Veldkamp, Edzo Soil carbon Land-use change Oil palm Rubber Cacao Forestal Tropical deforestation for the establishment of tree cash crop plantations causes significant alterations to soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. Despite this recognition, the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tier 1 method has a SOC change factor of 1 (no SOC loss) for conversion of forests to perennial tree crops, because of scarcity of SOC data. In this pantropic study, conducted in active deforestation regions of Indonesia, Cameroon, and Peru, we quantified the impact of forest conversion to oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), and cacao (Theobroma cacao) agroforestry plantations on SOC stocks within 3-m depth in deeply weathered mineral soils. We also investigated the underlying biophysical controls regulating SOC stock changes. Using a space-for-time substitution approach, we compared SOC stocks from paired forests (n = 32) and adjacent plantations (n = 54). Our study showed that deforestation for tree plantations decreased SOC stocks by up to 50%. The key variable that predicted SOC changes across plantations was the amount of SOC present in the forest before conversion—the higher the initial SOC, the higher the loss. Decreases in SOC stocks were most pronounced in the topsoil, although older plantations showed considerable SOC losses below 1-m depth. Our results suggest that (i) the IPCC tier 1 method should be revised from its current SOC change factor of 1 to 0.6 ± 0.1 for oil palm and cacao agroforestry plantations and 0.8 ± 0.3 for rubber plantations in the humid tropics; and (ii) land use management policies should protect natural forests on carbon-rich mineral soils to minimize SOC losses. Study Description. Results. Discussion. Methods. References 2020-11-27T13:39:59Z 2020-11-27T13:39:59Z 2015-08-11 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Van Straaten, O.; Corre, M.; Wolf, K.; Tchienkoua, M.; Cuellar, E.; Matthews, R. & Veldkamp, E. (2015). Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon. PNAS 112 (32) 9956-9960. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1504628112 https://repositorio.inia.gob.pe/handle/20.500.12955/1191 PNAS https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504628112 eng PNAS August 11, 2015 112 (32) 9956-9960 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504628112 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Indonesia, Camerún y Perú Stanford University Estados Unidos Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria Repositorio Institucional - INIA
spellingShingle Soil carbon
Land-use change
Oil palm
Rubber
Cacao
Forestal
Van Straaten, Oliver
Corre, Marife D.
Wolf, Katrin
Tchienkoua, Martin
Cuellar Bautista, José Eloy
Matthews, Robin
Veldkamp, Edzo
Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon
title Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon
title_full Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon
title_fullStr Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon
title_full_unstemmed Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon
title_short Conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one-half of stored soil organic carbon
title_sort conversion of lowland tropical forests to tree cash crop plantations loses up to one half of stored soil organic carbon
topic Soil carbon
Land-use change
Oil palm
Rubber
Cacao
Forestal
url https://repositorio.inia.gob.pe/handle/20.500.12955/1191
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504628112
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