Estimating carbon storage and CO2 absorption by developing allometric equations for Quercus acuta in South Korea

Abstract

This study was conducted to estimate C storage and CO2 absorption by developing allometric equations for Quercus acuta in South Korea. Carbon content and CO2 absorption were estimated according to climate change using data such as volume, stem density, and biomass expansion factor (BEF). Three kinds of BEFs were applied for this calculation: the national factor (NF, 1.22); the factor in this study (1.3275); and the biomass expansion regression equation (BRE) in this study. BRE among BEFs was developed to calculate BEF related to diameter at breast height (DBH) because BEF had a significantly positive relationship with DBH; the bigger DBH grew, the higher BEF increased. When applying the NF, C content and CO2 absorption were the lowest as 64.0455 t C ha−1 and 234.6840 t CO2 ha−1, respectively; whereas these were 69.6865 t C ha−1 and 255.5165 t CO2 ha−1 for the factor in this study. The highest values of C content and CO2 absorption were shown as 74.9280 t C ha−1 and 274.7365 t CO2 ha−1 when using the BRE. Carbon content prediction equations were also developed using these BEFs. Thus, BRE is suitable for developing an allometric equation for C content prediction with the greatest R2 adjusted of 0.9815.