Assistant Professor, Department of Range and Watershed Management, Faculty of Natural Resource and Environmental Sciences, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran
Abstract: (6099 Views)
Ongoing climate change has been a major global challenge since the 1880s. Sequestration of carbon(C) in rangelands ecosystems could provide a net carbon sink to offset increases in atmospheric C in global scale. This research is aimed at estimating the above-ground biomass carbon sequestration potential in Iran. For this purpose, total rangelands area and productivity data were extracted from the annual reports of Agriculture Statistical Pocketbook (2006-2013) of the country. Then productivity data was used to calculate above-ground C storage per province. The maximum and minimum rangeland areas were observed in Sistan and Baluchestan and Mazandaran (Nowshahr) Provinces, respectively. Maximum above-ground biomass C storage was about 1.07 Mg Cha-1y-1 in Fars Province. The minimum amount occurred in Qom province with only 0.023Mg C ha-1 y-1. In summary, mean carbon CO2fixation was about 0.25 Mg C ha-1 y-1in Iran’s rangelands from 2003 to 2013. Considering the total rangeland area(≈ 84.8 million hectare) and productivity of Iran, 11770.011 Gg C y-1 carbon is stored in above-ground biomass annually providing at least 5885 Gg organic C sequestration potential.
Article Type:
مقاله Ø§Ø³ØªØ®Ø±Ø§Ø Ø´Ø¯Ù‡ از پایان نامه |
Subject:
Rangeland Management Received: 2015/12/10 | Accepted: 2016/02/19 | Published: 2016/03/31