TY - JOUR

T1 - Digging deeper: the value of deep soil carbon for potential REDD+ projects in tropical forest communities in Amazonia

AU - Strey, Simone

AU - Boy, Jens

AU - Strey, Robert

AU - Welpelo, Anna

AU - Schönenberg, Regine

AU - Schumann, Charlotte

AU - Guggenberger, Georg

N1 - Funding information: This study was carried out in the framework of the integrated project CarBioCial funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the grant number 01LL0902F. We express our highest gratitude to the Kayapó nation without whom this study would not have been possible. We would like to personally thank Kococba Kayapó, Kryte Kayapó, and the Menkragnoti people and their leaders, the KABU with Junio Esllei Martins de Oliveira and Luis Carlos da Silva Sampaio. We are deeply thankful for the professional support of Paulo, the well builder. Furthermore, we would like to sincerely thank Silke Bokeloh for excellent laboratory work, Steffen Söffker for important support in the field, all our colleagues from CarBioCial for effective interdisciplinary cooperation and stimulating discussions, and Stefan Hohnwald and Michael Klingler for project coordination.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - The deforestation of tropical forests plays a key role in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and thus accelerates climate change. With the initiative Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), the UN spearheaded an approach to valorize ecosystems for their sequestered organic carbon (OC) to protect them for the sake of mitigating global climate change. In Brazil, where large areas of intact forests abound, especially within the territories of indigenous people, REDD+ schemes are highly sought after but are often hard to establish due to the given uncertainties in carbon stock evaluation at greater soil depths, intercultural communication problems and power asymmetries. With permission from the Kayapo/Mekragnoti tribe, our interdisciplinary research team dug a 10.0 m soil profile under a pristine forest situated on their indigenous territory in Pará, Brazil. Our results show that by following the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) guidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), focusing on the first 0.3 m of soil only captures 21 % of the total soil OC present. Furthermore, only 51 % of soil OC was stored in the first metre, while 84 % of OC was captured if the sampling depth expanded to 3.0 m. This study notes that for adequate calculation and validation of stored soil OC, at least one real measurement (i.e., the Tier 3 approach) is needed to represent OC stocks in the subsoil.

AB - The deforestation of tropical forests plays a key role in terms of carbon dioxide emissions and thus accelerates climate change. With the initiative Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), the UN spearheaded an approach to valorize ecosystems for their sequestered organic carbon (OC) to protect them for the sake of mitigating global climate change. In Brazil, where large areas of intact forests abound, especially within the territories of indigenous people, REDD+ schemes are highly sought after but are often hard to establish due to the given uncertainties in carbon stock evaluation at greater soil depths, intercultural communication problems and power asymmetries. With permission from the Kayapo/Mekragnoti tribe, our interdisciplinary research team dug a 10.0 m soil profile under a pristine forest situated on their indigenous territory in Pará, Brazil. Our results show that by following the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) guidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), focusing on the first 0.3 m of soil only captures 21 % of the total soil OC present. Furthermore, only 51 % of soil OC was stored in the first metre, while 84 % of OC was captured if the sampling depth expanded to 3.0 m. This study notes that for adequate calculation and validation of stored soil OC, at least one real measurement (i.e., the Tier 3 approach) is needed to represent OC stocks in the subsoil.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030099661&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3112/erdkunde.2017.03.05

DO - 10.3112/erdkunde.2017.03.05

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85030099661

VL - 71

SP - 231

EP - 239

JO - ERDKUNDE

JF - ERDKUNDE

SN - 0014-0015

IS - 3

ER -