Carbon storage, structure and composition of miombo woodlands in Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains
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Date
2011
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
We determine the aboveground biomass and carbon stor-
age (ABGC) of trees and the herbaceous layer in miombo
woodland in the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) of Tanza-
nia. In four 1-ha sample plots in Nyanganje and Kitonga
Forests, we measured all trees ‡10 cm diameter alongside
height and wood mass density. The plots contained an
average of 20 tree species ha )1 (range 11–29) and
344 stems ha )1 (range 281–382) with Shannon diversity
values of 1.05 and 1.25, respectively. We weighted nine
previously published woody savannah allometric models
based on whether: (i) the model was derived from the same
geographical region; (ii) the model included tree height ⁄ -
wood mass density in addition to stem diameter; and (iii)
sample size was used to fit the model. The weighted mean
ABGC storage from the nine models range from 13.5 ± 2
to 29.8 ± 5 Mg ha )1 . Measured ABGC storage in the
herbaceous layer, using the wet combustion method, adds
0.55 ± 0.02 Mg C ha )1 . Estimates suggest that EAM
miombo woodlands store a range of 13–30 Mg ha )1 of
carbon. Although the estimates suggest that miombo
woodlands store significant quantities of carbon, caution is
required as this is the first estimate based on in situ data.
Description
African Journal of Ecology, 2011; 49: 332–342
Keywords
Carbon storage, Composition, Eastern Arc Mountains, Miombo woodland, Structure