Biomass and Carbon Stocks Estimation of Lowland Dipterocarp, Riparian and Hill Dipterocarp Forests in Pahang National Park, Malaysia

Forest biomass estimation at local or global scale is very crucial and served as an important indicator for monitoring and estimating the forest carbon ecosystem especially in the context of climate change. Pahang National Park (PNP) is considered as a primary forest, and therefore, it is expected that more carbon can be absorbed and stored by forest biomass. Despite the multifunctional roles of forest biomass, lack of research had been done with regard to the extent of above-ground biomass (AGB) and below-ground biomass (BGB) in lowland dipterocarp (LDF), riparian (RF) and hill dipterocarp forests (HDF). Therefore, this study was conducted to provide an estimation of the AGB, BGB and carbon stocks with respect to different localities in PNP. A total of 60 plots were randomly set up and each forest type contains 20 plots measuring 20 × 20 m. The diameter at breast height (DBH) and height (H) were used to calculate the AGB and BGB, and the carbon conversion coefficient of 0.50 was used to calculate the carbon stocks. Based on the results, the estimation of biomass within LDF, RF and HDF not greatly varies between different species with the mean total tree biomass (TTB) values of 415.11, 323.33 and 579.05 t/ha, respectively. The estimation of carbon storage demonstrated that HDF attained the highest carbon stocks in TTB with the value of 289.52 t/ha. The information from this study is expected to provide baseline information and an understanding on the role of trees in the natural forest in sequestrating carbon.