Forest degradation and biomass damage resulting from logging is currently difficult to evaluate with satellite images, but contributes substantially to carbon emissions in the tropics. To address this situation, we mo...Forest degradation and biomass damage resulting from logging is currently difficult to evaluate with satellite images, but contributes substantially to carbon emissions in the tropics. To address this situation, we modelled how changes in the minimum felling diameter affect stem density, basal area and the related carbon biomass at the end of the felling cycle （30 years） in a semi-deciduous natural forest in Cameroon. With new MFDs estimates, at 7% logging damage rate, we found that the stem density of initially harvestable trees reduces from 12.3 （50.4 MgC·ha^-1） to 6.7 （32.5 MgC·ha^-1） trees per ha and the number of initial residual trees increases from 80 （18.9MgC·ha^-1） to 85.7 （36.8 MgC·ha^-1） trees per ha. This corresponds to an avoided damage estimated at 17.9 MgC·ha^-1. We also found that increasing mortality and damage intensity also increases the damage on carbon biomass estimated to be 8.9 MgC·ha^-1 at 10% or to be 17.4 MgC.hal at 15% logging damage. Overall, our study shows that proper determination of MFD of logged species taking into consideration their capacity of reconstitution and the Reduced Impact Logging can avoid the loss of up to 35 MgC·ha^-1.展开更多
文摘Forest degradation and biomass damage resulting from logging is currently difficult to evaluate with satellite images, but contributes substantially to carbon emissions in the tropics. To address this situation, we modelled how changes in the minimum felling diameter affect stem density, basal area and the related carbon biomass at the end of the felling cycle （30 years） in a semi-deciduous natural forest in Cameroon. With new MFDs estimates, at 7% logging damage rate, we found that the stem density of initially harvestable trees reduces from 12.3 （50.4 MgC·ha^-1） to 6.7 （32.5 MgC·ha^-1） trees per ha and the number of initial residual trees increases from 80 （18.9MgC·ha^-1） to 85.7 （36.8 MgC·ha^-1） trees per ha. This corresponds to an avoided damage estimated at 17.9 MgC·ha^-1. We also found that increasing mortality and damage intensity also increases the damage on carbon biomass estimated to be 8.9 MgC·ha^-1 at 10% or to be 17.4 MgC.hal at 15% logging damage. Overall, our study shows that proper determination of MFD of logged species taking into consideration their capacity of reconstitution and the Reduced Impact Logging can avoid the loss of up to 35 MgC·ha^-1.
