Resumo

ALVAREZ-ARTEAGA, Gustavo; GARCIA CALDERON, Norma E.; KRASILNIKOV, Pavel  e  GARCIA-OLIVA, Felipe. Carbon storage in montane cloud forests in Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, México. Agrociencia [online]. 2013, vol.47, n.2, pp.171-180. ISSN 2521-9766.

One of the principal uncertainties regarding the function of the tropical and subtropical forests within the global carbon cycle is due to the lack of information of the capacity of these ecosystems to accumulate carbon (C). In the case of the montane cloud forests, the wide environmental heterogeneity to which they are subjected determines important changes in their structural and floristic composition, which could affect the C contents stored in their different components. The objective of this study was to evaluate the C content in the above and below ground storage for five communities of montane cloud forest in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, situated between 1500 and 2500 m altitude. The design was hierarchic nested sampling and the variables were C in the arboreal biomass, herbaceous and shrub stratum, dead woody material, humus, fine roots and mineral soil for each plant community. The sum of the different stores indicated that the accumulated C was higher than 1500 and 2500 m (440 and 420 Mg ha^-1), and between 1950 and 2400 m it was 354 Mg ha^-1. On the average, the carbon reserve in biomass and soil for the montane cloud forests was 384.16±40.13 Mg ha^-1. The conformation of these stores is regulated by the biophysical variations within the altitudinal interval, translated in floristic and structural changes of the vegetation, in the production and preservation of scantly transformed organic residue on the soil surface, as well as its capacity to form organo mineral associations that estabilize organic carbon in the soil.

Palavras-chave : altitudinal gradient; aboveground carbon; underground carbon; physical and biotic conditions.

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