Title: The effects of land cover changes on forest carbon storage in 40 years: a case study in Turkey

Authors: Uzay Karahalil; Emin Zeki Başkent; Sinan Bulut

Addresses: Department of Forest Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey ' Department of Forest Engineering, Karadeniz Technical University, 61080, Trabzon, Turkey ' Department of Forest Engineering, Çankırı Karatekin University, 18200, Çankırı, Turkey

Abstract: In this study, forest biomass carbon storage changes were estimated for a case study area of Çaykara planning unit based on forest inventory for the years 1971 and 2010 using tree species dependent biomass expansion factors. The outputs were handled in the context of forest dynamics represented by temporal and spatial changes of land cover. Quantitative evidence showed that there were drastic changes of carbon storage in above and below ground forest ecosystems from 2.34 Tg carbon to 3.91 Tg carbon between two periods. Carbon sequestration rate was 1.37 Mg carbon yr−1 ha−1 for living biomass due mainly to the increase of forest area and growing stock and its quality. On the other hand, such a rate of increase in carbon storage was not influenced negatively by an almost tripling in the total number of patches from 406 to 1,445 in the same period.

Keywords: carbon storage; forest dynamics; land cover change; landscape metrics; Çaykara planning unit; Uzungöl Lake; Turkey; global warming; forest biomass; biomass expansion factors; special protected area.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2018.090180

International Journal of Global Warming, 2018 Vol.14 No.2, pp.207 - 223

Received: 26 Oct 2015
Accepted: 15 May 2016

Published online: 05 Mar 2018 *

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