Carbon storage in relation to plant species of lowland dipterocarp vegetation of Gunung Ledang, Malaysia

Abstract

The mitigation of carbon emissions is indispensable in the endeavour to combat climate change. The health of our planet is influenced by our forests because of the vegetation which is essential to mitigating climate change by increasing the carbon sequestration capacity of the forest. Some plants are nature’s carbon sinks, absorbing large amounts of CO₂ into their biomass thereby making multi-species forests to store carbon higher than a single-species forest. Native and introduced species were selected to evaluate the carbon storage in relation to plant species of lowland dipterocarp vegetation of Gunung Ledang. The objective was achieved by measuring the photosynthetic rate of the selected plants using a portable photosynthesis system. The biomass was determined using non-destructive methods while the carbon contents were estimated using the ash content method. The results obtained show that introduced species had a higher photosynthesis rate (18.3 µmol CO₂ m^-2 s ^-1) while native species had higher carbon stock (20.37 ± 0.52 kg/plant). Consequently, the spread of introduced species should be monitored because they have less contribution to Gunung Ledang carbon storage.