Tree layer carbon stock quantification in a temperate food forest: A peri-urban polyculture case study

摘要

Food forests offer a number of potential benefits and one of those is the ability to sequester carbon and increase terrestrial carbon stocks on urban, peri-urban and rural land. There is little research on the carbon storage capabilities within agroforestry systems let alone food forests and it is considered an underexploited option for carbon storage. This case study quantified the carbon stored within the above and below ground components of all tree layer woody biomass above 2 m in height and greater than 2 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) in the Agroforestry Research Trust's peri-urban food forest in Devon, UK. The study formed a population census, which measured all 528 trees across 68 species within the 0.64 ha food forest. Twenty-three allometric equations were used to estimate above ground biomass (AGB) while the below ground biomass (BGB) was calculated using a root to shoot ratio of 0.18:1. The stored carbon content was calculated as 50% of the total biomass. The temperate food forest case study site was estimated to store 39.53 +/- 4.05 Mg C ha(-1) in above and below ground living biomass. This result highlights the potential for a food forest stand to store a considerable amount of carbon that is at least within a similar range to other literature sourced urban and peri urban land uses. Thus, a purposely selected food forest assemblage whose primary focus is food production can also be a valuable carbon sink The results offer a promising initial study into the carbon storage potential within a food forest, which is only made more valuable given the other prospective benefits of food forests.