Estimation of Mangrove Forest’s Carbon Stock in Kuala Indragiri Coastal Riau Province – Indonesia

Abstract

Mangrove forest act as natural carbon stores, but the carbon will release if the trees were felled and the area were deforested. The amount of carbon stored within an area are varies according to the type of the vegetations, so it is need to develop the low carbon stock areas. Mangrove is one of the ecosystem’s key in climate changes as the carbon’s storage. Most of areas in Kuala Indragiri are low-lying areas (93.31%), such as, regional stream sediment, peat swamp areas with soil (peat), brackish forest areas (mangrove). Some of the area approximately 0-3 meters above sea level. The research design is the explorative research, by using nested quadrate method. There are 5 locations of carbon stocks sampling in Kuala Indragiri coastal: Sapat as station 1, Tanjung Lajau as station 2, Tanjung Melayu as station 3, Sei Bela as station 4 and Sei Buluh as station 5. Each station has three line transects consisting three plots of each transect. The total plots are 45 in each determined mangroves land. The methods followed the procedures developed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) for mangrove forests. Based on the finding, mangrove vegetation in the Kuala Indragiri coastal consisted of fourteen species. In this study, the researcher developed a general allometric equation to estimate the individual tree biomass and soil carbon content. The finding showed that the estimation of the carbon stock in the whole mangrove forest in Kuala Indragiri coastal: the average ground mass C stocks at each observed station were estimated to be 767.28 ton/ha (trees strata), 92.84 ton/ha (belta strata) and average soil carbon at each station to be 492 ton/ha respectively. estimation of mangrove forest’s carbon stock at above ground biomass and soil biomass in Kuala Indragiri coastal Riau province – Indonesia totally to be 1.352,31 Ton/Ha.