Background:Land-use systems that sequester carbon and reduce CO_(2) emissions are key in the global mitigation strategies of climate change.Greenhouse gas emission from agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa is little ...Background:Land-use systems that sequester carbon and reduce CO_(2) emissions are key in the global mitigation strategies of climate change.Greenhouse gas emission from agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa is little studied.Here,we quantified soil carbon stock(SCS)and CO_(2) emissions from three land-use systems viz.arable land,oil palm plantation and forestland in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana.Results:Soil organic carbon concentration at the 0–15 cm layer in the forestland was 62 and 23%greater than that in the arable land and palm plantation,respectively.The SCS along the 1.0-m profile was 108.2,99.0 and 73.5 Mg ha^(−1) in the forestland,palm plantation and arable land,respectively.Arable land emitted 30–46%more CO_(2) than palm plantation and forestland.In the dry season,CO_(2) emissions were respectively 0.93,0.63 and 0.5 kg ha^(−1) h−1 from the arable land,palm plantation and forestland.Positive relationships were observed between CO_(2) emissions and SCS,soil temperature,and moisture.The SCS greatly influenced CO_(2) emission in the dry season more than in the wet season in the relatively higher carbon-input systems(forestland and palm plantation).Soil temperature accounted for more than 55%of CO_(2) emissions in both seasons,which has implications in the era of rising global temperatures.Conclusions:The study provides relevant information on carbon storage abilities of the three land-use types in tropical climate and calls for drastic climate change actions to reduce degradation of forest cover and soil disturbance in agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa.展开更多
基金funded by the Royal Society-DFID through the SOFIIA project at KNUST.
文摘Background:Land-use systems that sequester carbon and reduce CO_(2) emissions are key in the global mitigation strategies of climate change.Greenhouse gas emission from agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa is little studied.Here,we quantified soil carbon stock(SCS)and CO_(2) emissions from three land-use systems viz.arable land,oil palm plantation and forestland in the semi-deciduous forest zone of Ghana.Results:Soil organic carbon concentration at the 0–15 cm layer in the forestland was 62 and 23%greater than that in the arable land and palm plantation,respectively.The SCS along the 1.0-m profile was 108.2,99.0 and 73.5 Mg ha^(−1) in the forestland,palm plantation and arable land,respectively.Arable land emitted 30–46%more CO_(2) than palm plantation and forestland.In the dry season,CO_(2) emissions were respectively 0.93,0.63 and 0.5 kg ha^(−1) h−1 from the arable land,palm plantation and forestland.Positive relationships were observed between CO_(2) emissions and SCS,soil temperature,and moisture.The SCS greatly influenced CO_(2) emission in the dry season more than in the wet season in the relatively higher carbon-input systems(forestland and palm plantation).Soil temperature accounted for more than 55%of CO_(2) emissions in both seasons,which has implications in the era of rising global temperatures.Conclusions:The study provides relevant information on carbon storage abilities of the three land-use types in tropical climate and calls for drastic climate change actions to reduce degradation of forest cover and soil disturbance in agro-ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa.
