Soil Organic Carbon and Emission Factors for Different Land Cover Classes in Tanzania

Abstract

Quantification of carbon stock and development of country-specific emission factors in relation to the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector has the potential to improve national greenhouse gas inventory systems. This study was therefore, conducted to quantify soil organic carbon (SOC) and develop emission factors using the national forest inventory data of Tanzania. The results, showed that, the mean SOC for the different land cover subclasses ranged from 31.23 Mg C /ha to 99.8 Mg C /ha. The lowest value being recorded in the bushland thicket and highest value in the forest humid mountains. Spatial interpolation map indicated that, large areas in the central part had low values of SOC, ranging from 0-53Mg C/ha. The SOC for the primary land cover classes were 37.32 Mg C/ha, 43.44 Mg C/ha, 39.68 Mg C/ha for forest, non-non forest and wetlands respectively. Their correspondingly annual emission factors were, 3.56 Mg CO2/ha/yr, 4.14 Mg CO2/ha/yr, and 3.78 Mg CO2/ha/yr, respectively. The values presented in this paper correspond to IPCC tier 2 and can be used for estimation of carbon emission at the national scale for the respective major primary land cover classes.