There has been an increase in carbon
assessments across global ecosystems, but some ecosystem types remain woefully
understudied, and freshwater swamp forests are one such ecosystem. Located
between the mangrove swamp forest and the lowland forest ecosystems, freshwater
swamp forest provides a corridor for the migration of flora and fauna between
these ecosystems as well as being floristically unique. Swamp forests
contribute to the provision of ecosystem services, are potential stores of carbon
and important for climate regulation and biogeochemical cycling. However, this
ecosystem has been steadily exploited, its extent has reduced, been degraded and
is now confined to small pockets. As a result, its species like in most other
old growth forests across the tropics, are not only threatened and fragmented,
but the ecosystem services they provide are reduced. These changes have impacted
the forest landscape adversely and reduced the former extensive ecosystem into
mosaics of forest islands.
Since the use of the ecosystem are
dependent on the management and ownership statuses of the forest lands,
understanding the linkages between the management of the ecosystem and the
services they provide is crucial to maximize ecosystem service potentials. We
focus on highlighting the impact of forest use on the composition and the
carbon storage capacities of the ecosystem; so as to better inform and promote
the ecosystem’s conservation and its carbon potentials.
The capacity to which freshwater swamp
forests across the region stored carbon seems to be on the decline following
forest modification across most of the landscapes. This has become more acute
because, the forests’ management and viability are dependent on individuals who
mostly depend on the forests for sources of livelihood and barely consider
issues of forest conservation. This
study found forest ownership and utilization can affect forest composition and
its capacity to provide vital ecosystem services such as carbon storage. It is
suggested that awareness of sustainable forest management techniques need to be
advocated across both family owned and communally owned forests—in order to
ensure that their carbon storage capacities are not hampered.
Article by Nwabueze I. Igu, Rob Marchant,
from University of York, UK.
Full access:http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=74893&utm_campaign=blogger&utm_medium=ljw
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| Image by London Trees,from Flickr-cc |
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