Abstract—The research mainly studied the carbon stocks of

wetland areas of Indonesia especially Papua, started from the west to the east areas based on the long term surveys. The field study was

carried out for 26 days in the field of September 2011. The collected information will be very useful in developing the baseline data of wetlands, especially in selected mangrove ecosystem, soil properties and its carbon stocks. The Objective of research was to measure the amount of carbon stocks including its distribution, and also to monitor C-pools of the mangrove forest in the south of Papua. The representative location of carbon stock sampling was chosen base on differences landform (mangroves) areal from west to east in the south

of Papua. There were 3 locations for carbon stocks sampling in Papua, i.e. : 1) Teminabuan - South Sorong as region of West Papua Province, 2) Bintuni as region of West Papua Province, and 3) Timika as region of Papua Province. Five up to six transects were laid in each determined mangroves land. The Field Procedure was based Protocols for Measurements Carbon Stocks in Mangrove Forest. The result showed that the total carbon storage in the mangrove ecosystems ranged from 853.23 to 1311.61 Mg.ha-1 with the highest value was located at the mangrove forest in Bintuni.

These total carbon stock were exceptionally higher compared to the same forest type of mangrove located around the world. This study pointed out that mangroves in Bintuni is the most significant ecosystems in storing large number of carbon. These imply that the mangrove ecosystem should be considered among strategies for climate change mitigation.

Keywords— C-Stocks, mitigation, wetlands papua.

I. INTRODUCTION

ANGROVES has significant roles in the ecosystem,

among them are well known for high carbon storage.

However, it is surprisingly invented that the available data on

carbon storage for Papua regions are insufficient. Mangrove is

well known for high C assimilation and flux rates, there is

surprisingly lack of available data on the carbon storage

Sartji Taberima is researcher and lecturer of Soil science at Faculty of

Agriculture and Agriculture Technique, the State University of Papua,

Manokwari, West Papua 98314, Indonesia. E-mail : atji_t@yahoo.com;

atji.taberima1@gmail.com

Yulius Dwi Nugroho is researcher and lecturer at Faculty of Forestry, the

State University of Papua, Manokwari, West Papua 98314, Indonesia.

E-mail : jd_nugroho2004@yahoo.com

Daniel Murdiyarso is a senior research scientist at the Center for

International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Jl. CIFOR, Situgede, Bogor 16115,

Indonesia. E-mail : d.murdiyarso@cgiar.org

amount of whole ecosystem which stands to be released with

land-use conversion. Limited components of C storage have

been reported, most notably is tree biomass. But evidence of

deep organic rich soils suggests that these estimates miss the

vast majority of total carbon ecosystem. Belowground C

storage in mangrove soils is difficult to quantify and it is not a

simple function of measured flux rates. It also integrates

thousands of years of variable deposition, transformation, and

erosion dynamics associated with fluctuating sea levels and

episodic disturbances [3].

The research mainly studied the carbon stocks (C-org) of

wetland areas of Indonesia especially Papua, started from the

west to the east areas based on the long term surveys. The

collected information will be very useful in developing the

baseline data of mangroves ecosystem, soil properties and its

carbon stocks.

II. OBJECTIVES

Objective of research was to measure the amount of carbon

stocks including its distribution, and also to monitor C-pools

of the mangrove forest in the south of Papua. The

representative location of carbon stock sampling was chosen

base on differences landform (mangroves) areal from west to

east in the south of Papua.

III. MATERIALS AND METHODS

A. Study Area

There were 3 locations for carbon stocks sampling in Papua,

i.e. : 1) Teminabuan - South Sorong as region of West Papua

Province, 2) Bintuni as region of West Papua Province, and 3)

Timika as region of Papua Province. Five up to six transects were laid in each determined mangroves land. Map of

representative study sites were presented on Figure 1.

The Distribution of Carbon Stock in Selected

Mangrove Ecosystem of Wetlands Papua:

Bintuni, Teminabuan, and Timika

Eastern Indonesia

Sartji Taberima, Yulius Dwi Nugroho, and Daniel Murdiyarso

M

International Conference on Chemical, Environment & Biological Sciences (CEBS-2014) Sept. 17-18, 2014 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IICBE.C914072 7

Fig 1. Map of representative study sites : Bintuni, Teminabuan, and Timika

B. Sampling and Analysis

The Field Procedure was based Protocols for Measurements

Carbon Stocks in Mangrove Forest [3], [4], [5]. To determine

the biomass of tree of each plot, the measured parameters were

main stem diameter (dbh), type of species, and tree height.

The values of measured parameters were used in the published allometric equations [2], [6]. Down wood volume was

calculated from line intercept data using scaling equations [1],

[9].

In each sampled mangrove ecosystem, a transect was laid

perpendicular from the river or coast shoreline with no prior

knowledge of forest composition or structure. Six transects

were laid parallel to each other of each site (or perpendicular

to the fringe of water) on representative location. Six plots

were established along each transect at 25 m intervals.

Measurements and collection of C-Stocks sampling were

conducted as described below.

Aboveground pools

Trees : > 1.3 m height :

a. Dead

b. Live by species (in DBH)

> 100 cm, 50 - 100 cm, 30 - 50 cm, 10 - 30 cm,

0 - 10 cm

Palms

Shrub and Dwarf Mangroves

Seedling, herbs, litter, pneumatophores

Downed wood (diameter in cm)

0.67 cm

0.67 - 2.54 cm a. Sound

2.54 - 7.6 cm b. Rotten

> 7.6 cm

Belowground pools

a. Roots

b. Soils (Depth in cm) 0 - 15 cm, 15 - 30 cm, 30 - 50 cm, 50 - 100 cm,

> 100 cm

Fig 2. Schematic of plot layout for Mangroves

Analyses of chemical and physical characteristics of the soil

samples were carried out at the Laboratory IPB - Bogor. The

methods of analyses for soil samples are shown in Table 1. TABLE 1

SOIL CHEMICAL - PHYSICAL AND METHODS

No. Parameter Method

1. Total C (%) Dry Combustion

2. Total N (%) Kjeldahl

3. Bulk Density (g/cm3) Ring Sample,

Drying 60 oC (Oven)

Total Carbon Stock or the Total Ecosystem Carbon Pool

The total carbon stock or pool (carbon density) was

estimated by adding all of the component pools, as follow :

a. Each component pool was averaged across all plots (e.g.,

trees, soil, etc),

b. These average values were then summed together to

obtain the total.

(a) Equation for total carbon stock or pool;

Total C stock (Mg/ha) of the sampled stand = CtreeAG +

CtreeBG + Cdead-tree + Csap/seed + Csap/seedBG + Cdeadsap/seed +

Cnontreeveg + Cwoodydebris + Csoil

[CtreeAG = aboveground carbon pools of trees, CtreeBG =

belowground tree carbon pool, Cdead-tree = the

dead tree pool, Csap/seed = saplings and seedling carbon

pools, Cnontreeveg = non-tree vegetation carbon pools,

International Conference on Chemical, Environment & Biological Sciences (CEBS-2014) Sept. 17-18, 2014 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IICBE.C914072 8

Cwoodydebris = downed wood carbon pool, Csoil = the soil

carbon pool].

(b) Equation for total carbon stock of a given project area;

Total C stock of project area (Mg) = Total C (Mg/ha)

x Area (ha)

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. Distribution of C pools and total C in Mangrove

Ecosystems

Above and Below ground C-stocks

The C-stocks of mangrove forest areas ranged from 853.2

to 1311.6 Mg ha-1 (Table 2; Fig. 2) and the overall mean of C-

stock across these three study areas was 655.9 Mg C ha-1.

Based on the study of [8], the C stock in upland tropical forest

is ranged from 150 to 500 Mg C ha-1, therefore this mangrove

forest of Bintuni, Timika and Teminabuan had significantly

higher C stock compared to the upland tropical forest. Among

these three mangrove forest, Bintuni mangrove contained the

largest mean C stock of 1311.6 Mg C ha-1, followed by

Timika mangrove at 1243.8 Mg C ha-1 and Teminabuan

mangrove at 853.2 Mg C ha-1. The site dominance of each

mangrove was also varied whereas Teminabuan areas has more diverse of mangrove species compared to Bintuni and

Timika.

TABLE II

ECOSYSTEM C-POOLS (MG C HA-1

) IN MANGROVES AREAS OF BINTUNI,

TIMIKA, AND TEMINABUAN

Ecosystem types Mangrove ecosystems

Bintuni Timika Teminabuan

Aboveground pools

Live trees 212.12 219.24 139.89

Dead trees 23.03 1.66 1.26

Down woods 11.4 22.11 13.91

Total aboveground 246.55 243.01 155.06

Belowground pools

Roots 33.06 35.84 23.26

Soil 1032 964.9 674.9

Total belowground 1065.06 1000.74 698.16

Total Ecosystem C

Stock 1311.61 1243.75 853.22

Most of the aboveground C storage dominated by trees and

down wood which contained up to 246.6 Mg C ha-1, however

belowground pools comprised the largest of C pools which

ranged from 698.2 to 1065.1 Mg C ha-1 (Table 1). The highest C storage at above and below ground pools was in the Bintuni

mangrove and the lowest in Teminabuan mangrove.

Regarding the soil depths, most of the C storage ranged

from 10 cm to about 2 m. The C storage in the soil was

tended to be higher from the topsoil. This pattern was found in

all soil depths of all study areas of mangrove ecosystem. The

highest C storage was found in the soil depths of >100 cm. In

other words, that the more the soil depth, more of the C

storage. Figure 2 shows the C pools and C stocks both in

above and below ground of Mangrove Areas of Bintuni,

Timika, and Teminabuan sites. Belowground pools of roots and soils had significantly contributed the majority of C

storage in this ecosystem.

Fig 2. Above and belowground carbon pools in Mangroves Areas of

Bintuni, Timika, and Teminabuan

B. The Characteristics of Soil in Mangrove Ecosystems

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is one of the important soil

chemistry characteristics in mangrove ecosystems. These soil

properties can also be used to estimate the organic matter content in the soil. SOC was also determined according to the

soil depth at each study site of Bintuni, Teminabuan and

Timika. Figure 3 shows the SOC content at each transects of

the mangrove ecosystem in Bintuni (BTN), Teminabuan

(TMB) and Timika (TMK) sites. In addition, the SOC content

of Teminabuan sites was slightly higher than Bintuni and

Timika sites. Regarding to the soil depth, the highest SOC

content for these three sites was in the depth of 0-100 cm from

the soil surface and it tends to be lower on the depth of >100

cm. This indicated that mangrove areas of Teminabuan and

Timika have a high potential of C stocks of belowground

especially in the depth of 0-100 cm. The total N content in the soil of mangrove areas is shown

in the Figure 4. Total N content in the soil of mangrove areas

of Aranday site ranged from 0.19 to 0.41 %, 0.09 to 0.46% in

Timika, and 0.02 to 0.43% in Teminabuan, respectively.

Regarding to the soil depth, total N content was also higher in

the depth of 0-100 cm from soil surface, and it tends to be

lower when the soil depth was greater than 100 cm. In general,

both soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen have been

identified as factors that are important to soil fertility in both

managed and natural ecosystems (7).

V. CONCLUSION

The data presented in this study show that mangrove

ecosystems stored exceptional high carbon comparing to other

ecosystem in the tropics. The result showed that the total

carbon storage in the mangrove ecosystems ranged from

853.23 to 1311.61 Mg.ha-1 with the highest value was located

at the mangrove forest in Bintuni. These total carbon stock

were exceptionally higher compared to the same forest type of

mangrove located around the world. This study pointed out that mangroves in Bintuni is the most significant ecosystems

in storing large number of carbon. These imply that the

mangrove ecosystem should be considered among strategies

for climate change mitigation.

International Conference on Chemical, Environment & Biological Sciences (CEBS-2014) Sept. 17-18, 2014 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IICBE.C914072 9

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The paper is an output from the research study of Carbon Storage in Mangrove and Peatland Ecosystems of Papua -

Eastern Indonesia 2011/2012, which is the join research

between the State University of Papua (UNIPA) and the

Center for Forestry Research (CIFOR). We particularly would

like to express our appreciation and grateful to CIFOR and

United State for Forestry Service (USFS) for providing a

research fund and technical assistances throughout the

experimenting period. Special thanks are due to Prof. Daniel

Murdiyarso (CIFOR), Prof. Boone Kauffman (University of

Oregon) and Dr. Matthew Warren (USFS USA) for generous

and professional support for the design and protocol of the

study. We also thankful to Dr. Eben Broadbent (USFS USA) and Dr. Joko Purbopuspito (UNSRAT) for a great help in the

field technical aspects and data analysis. In addition, we

acknowledge the local government of Bintuni Bay and South

Sorong Regencies and Freeport Indonesia for facilitating the

entry to the research sites. Finally, thanks to the contribution

of the researchers of UNIPA.

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Fig 3. Carbon content (%) in Mangrove Ecosystems

Fig 4. Nitrogen content (%) in Mangrove Ecosystems

International Conference on Chemical, Environment & Biological Sciences (CEBS-2014) Sept. 17-18, 2014 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IICBE.C914072 10