Title
Late twentieth-century trends in the biomass of Amazonian forest plots
Date Issued
01 September 2007
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
book part
Author(s)
Baker T.R.
Phillips O.L.
Malhi Y.
Almeida S.
Arroyo L.
Di Fiore A.
Erwin T.
Higuchi N.
Killeen T.J.
Laurance S.G.
Laurance W.F.
Lewis S.L.
Neill D.A.
Pitman N.C.A.
Silva J.N.M.
Publisher(s)
Oxford University Press
Abstract
This chapter discusses a previous study by Phillips et al. (1998) on biomass changes in Amazonian permanent sample plots which has been used to infer the presence of a regional carbon sink, generating vigorous debate about sampling and methodological issues. A new analysis of biomass change in old-growth Amazonian forest plots is presented here using new inventory data. It has been found that across fifty-nine sites, the above-ground dry biomass in trees of more than 10 cm in diameter has increased since plot establishment by about 1.22 Mg per hectare per year, or about 0.98 Mg per hectare per year if individual plot values are weighted by the number of hectare years of monitoring. This significant increase is not confounded by spatial or temporal variation in wood specific gravity, nor does it depend on the allometric equation used to estimate biomass. Overall, these results suggest a slightly greater rate of net stand-level change than reported in 1998, and indicate the presence of a significant regional-scale carbon sink in old-growth Amazonian forests during the past two decades.
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ecología
Conservación de la Biodiversidad
Geografía física
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84920449760
Resource of which it is part
Tropical Forests and Global Atmospheric Change
ISBN of the container
9780191717888
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus