Estimation of carbon amounts stored in forest tree species using different biomass estimation approaches and its temporal change analysis: A case study in Alara planning unit

Forest ecosystems are one of the most important natural resources that provide various goods and services to the society. Carbon storage is an important forest function, and forest ecosystems play an important role in preventing and controlling climate change, which is one of the most important global and ecological concerns today. In this study, first of all, the spatial and temporal changes in the forest structure and composition with the land use change between 1997-2018 of the Alara Forest Planning Unit located in the south of Turkey were analyzed. Then, the effects of the change in the forest ecosystem structure and composition on the amount of carbon stored from the forest biomass were investigated. Finally, biomass and carbon calculations were made at the planning unit level according to different biomass calculation methods, and the results were compared. As a result of the study, in the planning unit in the 21-year period; it is found that there is a 2,3% decrease in the amount of forest area, a 62% decrease in the degraded forest area, a 6,8% decrease in the settlement and agricultural areas and a 15% increase in the productive forest area. It has been observed that there is an important and positive development in the forest structure in terms of stand development stage and canopy closure. Depending on the positive developments in forest structure and composition, it was estimated that there was a 10% increase in the amount of carbon stored in forest biomass in 2018 compared to 1997. It was observed that the amount of forest biomass calculated according to the biomass equation gave 48% higher results than the biomass conversion coefficients. According to the results of the study, it is suggested that it would be more appropriate to use both remote sensing data and biomass equations developed at the tree species level in forest biomass and carbon calculations.