ANALYSIS OF CARBON STORAGE DIFFERENCES DURING THE SUCCESSION PROCESS IN EX - FIRE PEAT FORESTS, CENTRAL KALIMANTAN

• Main Author: Pelita Dwi Yanty S, Sarma
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/82155
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Central Kalimantan Province is one of the provinces that frequently experiences peat forest fires. This has been occurred since the failure of the Mega Rice Project in the area that was recently designated as a Forest Area with Research Objectives (in Indonesia: KHDTK) Tumbang Nusa with a total area up to one million hectares. The failure has left the peat forests dry and damaged, increasing the potential for peat fires. To date, peat forest fires are still recurrent. This leads to carbon emission and contributes to increasing the impacts of climate change. Peat forest restoration is important to restore the condition and function of peat forests. This study aims to estimate carbon storage in peat forests of different ages after fire, estimate the distribution between carbon components, and examine the relationship between the amount of carbon storage and the succession process that occurs in burned peat forests in the KHDTK Tumbang Nusa. The research method was conducted using a chronosequence approach. The data was collected in three research sites consisting of ex-fire forest in 1997 (EF-1997), ex-fire forest in 2015 (EF-2015), and Reference area located in CIMTROP-Sebangau. Carbon storage analysis begins with sampling and field data collection divided into three components, namely biomass, necromass, and soil. Estimation of carbon storage of biomass and necromass components used allometric equations, while the soil carbon component used equations obtained from literature studies. The results of carbon storage in the 2015 ex-fire forest amounted to 357.26 tons/ha, in the 1997 ex-fire forest amounted to 413.33 tons/ha, and the value is still smaller than the results of carbon storage in the Reference Area (467.213 tons/ha). The largest distribution of carbon is in the soil component with a proportion 52-87% of total carbon storage. Successional peat forests with an estimated stand age of 26 years after fire (EF-1997) have conditions that are more similar to the Reference area. Thus, carbon storage can be used as an indicator of the recovery process of successional peat swamp forests after fire.