Carbon management for savannah ecosystems in Central Africa: A case study from Cameroon

Abstract

The overall objective of this work is to assess the carbon sequestration potential and ecological service of savannah ecosystems in Cameroon. The destructive and non-destructive method was used to estimate the amount of carbon in different biomasses. The experimental setup used in this work is a random complete Fisher block device with four repetitions. The carbon stock in the aboveground biomass is ≥11.15 ± 2.41 tC/ha in the two regions. The carbon stock in litter biomass is ≥0.15 ± 0.02 tC/ha in the two regions. The carbon stock in herbaceous biomass is ≥3.00 ± 1.02 tC/ha in the savannah ecosystems within the regions. The carbon stock in dead wood biomass is ≥2.26 ± 1.09 tC/ha in the savannah ecosystems within regions. The carbon stock in the root biomass is ≥1.62 ± 0.18 tC/ha in the savannah ecosystems within the regions. Soil carbon stock is ≥3.74 ± 1.40 tC/ha in the two regions. The total carbon stocks ranged from 32.66 ± 3.05-71.06 ± 5.75 to 36.59 ± 3.50-69.85 ± 5.51 tC/ha in Adamawa and North regions, respectively. CO2 emissions are >100 tCO2/ha in the savannah ecosystems within the regions. These results therefore confirm the contributing role of savannah ecosystems studied in the fight against the mitigation of climate change in the Adamawa and North region of Cameroon.