Carbon Cycling in Teak Plantations in Comparison with Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests in Thailand

Tropical deforestation has become a significant source of increased atmospheric CO2 concentration, hence efforts to promote several actions for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in the international society, one important example of which is afforestation in deforested areas (Gibbs et al., 2007). Recently, Pan et al. (2011) estimated that the global average of the gross emission rate of tropical deforestation was 2.9 petagrams of carbon (Pg C y–1) from 1990 to 2007 and that tropical regrowth forests were partially compensated for by a carbon sink of 1.6 Pg C y–1 within an area of 557 Mha. In contrast, the carbon sink from intact forests, not substantially affected by direct human activities, was 1.19 Pg C y–1 within an area of 1392 Mha, suggesting that tropical plantations acted as strong carbon sinks due to rapid biomass accumulation.