STUDY ON QUANTIFICATION OF CARBON CONTENT AT

PINE (Pinus merkusii) PLANTATION FOREST

By :

Heru Dwi .R, Sukresno, and Tyas Mutiara .B,

Abstract

Forests cover a quarter part of world land area and play an important role in
maintaining global environment, such as controlling flood, desertification process, and
sequestration and fixation of CO2. The existing of forest was decreasing due to slash and
burn activities, over forest felling for fuel wood and commercial timber, conversion of
forest land to other uses.
Our world is now opening to adversity of global warming. It is believed that
most of CO2 and other green house gases were release from economics activities, formed
a layer surrounding world atmosphere, stopped solar energy, and caused a raise
average temperature. Climate change caused by global warming has overcome to more
intent natural disaster in some parts of the world as before.
Concerning this situation, BP2TPDAS-IBB have conducted a study to collect and
analyze some data to quantify the fixation of carbon content in Pine (Pinus merkusii)
stands biomass as one favorite species in developing industrial plantation forest.
The study located at Pine plantation forest at Gombong KHDTK, Purworejo
Forestry District (KPH), Perum Perhutani Unit I, Central Java. The research deals with
the observation of the current condition and does not employ a treatment. The research
methodology used to quantify carbon sequestration in the plant biomass was using
IPCC approximation guidelines in Retnowati, 1998. In this research assumed that, the
amount of absorbed and stored of carbon contents in plant was the same as the carbon
content in the plant biomass.
The results of the study show that the correlation equations between stand/plant
age and diameter, total dry weight biomass and diameter, also carbon content and
diameter give high value of determination coefficient, respectively Y = 3.2166 X 0.672 with
determination coefficient is R2 = 0,9588, DTW = 0,1647 X 1,216 with determination
coefficient is R2 = 0,9817, C = 0,0739 X 1,2554 with determination coefficient is R2 =
0,9926. It means those equations could be used to estimate the carbon content of Pine
stand.

Key words: pine, age, diameter, total dry weight, carbon content, reducing of air CO2

I. BACKGROUND

Community growth and quality, quantity demand of food, housing, and energy have
caused people overused the natural resourse. Increasing of life necesseries are shown in the
changes of energy consumption from fosil fuel or the change of land use. These two things
can cause the increase of global warming, furthermore can cause the change of global
climate. Global warming is a simpton of raise average temperature to earth surface that is
caused by increasing of green house effect intensity. Based on Murdiarso (1999) the
important green house gases which cause global warming is carbon dioxide (CO2), metana
(CH4) dan nitrous oxide (N2O). Among the three gases, the biggest constribute to the global
warming is CO2, i.e., 55%. It is too important to be done for the reducing of CO 2
atmosphere, cause the raise of earth temperature will make the rained pattern changing,
further, cause flood, drought, even raise of sea level as the consequence of becoming liquid
of ice on the pole.
One of the factor that can decrease the CO 2 acumulation in the atmosphere is the
vegetation absorbsion. Forest that have variation of vegetation composition can act as air
cleaner by using CO2 in the air and used in photosynthesis process (Foley, 1993).
Indonesia is the very potensially act as carbon emision absorbsion country, because of
the widely tropical forest area, but the speed of deforestation are reported increase. Based on
SEI (1992) in Handoko, et al., (1996) the deforestation rate in tropical forest approximately
1.1 million hectare per year. This potency could be increase by reforestation activity in grass
land area. This area could be used as media in reducing emision, by establishing plantation
forest in a good management method.
Based on these problems the research is to obtain the carbon content quantification
on pine stand (Pinus merkusii) as the one of priority species in plantation forest development.

II. METHOD
A. Time and Place
Research was done in 2004, and located at Pine forest plantation, Purworejo
Forestry District (KPH), Perum Perhutani Unit I, Central Java.
B. Materials and Equipment
Materials of this research were: pine stand, biomass sample, soil sample.. Field
equipments were: how, hagameter, GPS, meterband, weights.
C. Research Design
1. Research Type
The research deals with the observation of the current condition in pine stand in
the field and did not employ a treatment.
2. Research Design
The research methodology used to quantify carbon sequestration in the plant
biomass was using IPCC approximation guidelines in Retnowati (1998).
In this research assumed that the amount of absorbed and stored of carbon
contents in plant were the same as the carbon content in the plant biomass.
3. Parameter
a. Biophysical parameters to be collected include :
 High and diameter breth high (dbh), stand volume
 Air weight and dry weight of stand biomass
 Temperature, elevation, rainfall, sedimen
 Organic carbon content in stand biomass
 b. Data Collection
To get the quantity of carbon content in stand biomass, it should be obtained
through some stages, such as :
• To get air weight of log were done by cutting the trees, the cutting trees represent
big, medium, and small diameter (JIFRO, 2000). The selected logs would be cut
as samples with 5 Cm thickness on each log segment at 0-30 Cm, 30-230 Cm,
230-430 Cm, 430-630 Cm, of log length.
• Branch and subbranch sample were taken from lower, middle, and upper part
• Leafs samples were taken from lower, middle and upper part
• Roots were broken up and weighted all , then the root sample was taken.
• All part of the tree samples were weighted on field.
• To get dry weight and carbon content is done by destructive sampling, such as,
dried the sample at the oven for 48 hours at 60ºC. Furthermore the samples were
analized for the carbon content.
4. Data Analize
a. Stand biomass was estimated from the allomatric equation (between dbh and total
dry weight (tdw) (JICA & FORDA, 2002), as :
2 b
TDW= a (dbh ) (equation 1)
a dan b koeficien
b. Quantification of CO2 atmosphere reduced by plant is calculatedh from carbon
conversion whitin plant biomasss by the formula (JIFPRO and JOPP, 2001) :
CO2 = 44/12 x C (equation 2 )

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. Carbon Content Quantification Estimation
The result from the field measurement on several ages of pine stand, and the analize
of biomass sample were shown as the table 1.
Table 1. Plant measurement of pine (Pinus merkusii) biomass from several stand ages
No. Age Diameter Total Dry Carbon/Tree % Carbon
Weight/Tree
(Year) (Cm) (Kg)
(Kg)
1. 3 6.6 15.97 8.15 51.03
2. 10 17.3 140.99 84.47 59.91
3. 17 18 257.58 129.77 50.38
4. 30 33.8 763.77 478.8 62.69
Remark : % Carbon = percentage of carbon content in biomass
Calculation step of carbon content estimation on pine stand :
1. Making one equation of thr relation between stand age and plant/tree diameter, then an
equation of estimation of diameter value/number on several plant/tree ages will be
performed as :
0.672
Y = 3.2166 X
the value of R2 = 0,9588
2
Where X is dbh , Y is plant/tree age
2. Stand biomass can be estimated from the allometric equation (the relationship between
dbh and total dry weight (TDW), (JICA and FORDA, 2002)
DTW = a (dbh2 ) b
Where : a dan b are koefisien
Then we could obtain an equation as :
1,216
DTW = 0,1647 X
2
Where X is dbh ,

the value of R2 = 0,9817

3. Carbon content of the stand is estimated by allometric equation (between dbh andtotal
carbon, (JICA and FORDA, 2002)
C = a (dbh2 ) b
Where : a dan b are koefisien
Then we obtain an equation as :
1,2554
C = 0,0739 X
2
Where X is dbh ,

the value of R2 = 0,9926

The three equations above give high value of detemination coefisient (> 90%). This
means, those equations could be used to predict/ estimate the free variable with high acuracy.
The estimation equations are resulted from the equation relationship between tree age with
tree diameter (dbh), the equation relationship between tree diameter (dbh) and biomass total
dry weight, and the equation relationship between tree diameter (dbh) and carbon content
were presented on Table 2.
Table 2. Diameer, biomass, total dry weight and carbon content estimation of pine (Pinus
merkusii) stand
Total Total
Dry Carbon Dry Carbon
Age Diameter Weight content % Age Diameter Weight content %
(year) (cm) (kg) (kg) Carbon (year) (cm) (kg) (kg) Carbon
1 3.2 2.8 1.4 49.0 21 24.9 409.5 236.7 57.8
2 5.1 8.6 4.4 51.4 22 25.7 442.2 256.3 58.0
3 6.7 16.8 8.8 52.1 23 26.5 476.5 276.8 58.1
4 8.2 27.5 14.6 53.1 24 27.2 498.0 295.5 59.3
5 9.5 39.2 21.0 53.6 25 28.0 543.7 317.2 58.3
 6 10.7 52.5 28.4 54.1 26 28.7 578.4 338.1 58.5
7 11.9 68.0 37.1 54.5 27 29.5 618.4 362.3 58.6
8 13.0 84.3 46.3 54.9 28 30.2 654.7 384.3 58.7
9 14.1 102.7 56.8 55.3 29 30.9 692.3 407.0 58.8
10 15.1 121.6 67.6 55.6 30 31.6 731.0 430.6 58.9
11 16.1 141.8 79.2 55.9 31 32.3 771.0 454.9 59.0
12 17.1 164.2 92.1 56.1 32 33.0 812.3 480.1 59.1
13 18.0 186.0 104.8 56.3 33 33.7 854.8 506.1 59.2
14 18.9 209.4 118.5 56.6 34 34.4 898.7 532.9 59.3
15 19.8 235.9 134.0 56.8 35 35.1 942.2 559.6 59.4
16 20.7 261.3 148.9 57.0 36 35.7 983.5 584.9 59.5
17 21.6 289.8 165.6 57.2 37 36.4 1031.1 614.1 59.6
18 22.4 316.0 181.5 57.4 38 37.1 1080.0 644.2 59.7
19 23.3 348.4 200.4 57.5 39 37.7 1122.9 670.7 59.7
20 24.1 377.5 217.7 57.7 40 38.4 1172.0 701.0 59.8
Remark : % Carbon = percentage of carbon content in biomass

B. Quantification of CO2 atmosphere reducing

Using the estimation result on Table 1. and the formula of equation 2. the reducing of
CO2 atmosphere emision will be obtained and shown on Table 3.
Table 3. Reducing of CO2 atmosphere emision by pine stand on several age classes
Diameter Carbon Reducing of Air
Age Number of tree/Ha Average Content CO2
(Year) Min Max (Cm) Ton/Ha Ton/Ha
5 1120 1220 9.5 23.5-25.6 86.24-93.94
6 975 1090 10.7 27.7-31 101.53-113.51
7 849 960 11.9 31.5-35.6 115.49-130.59
8 755 835 13 35-38.7 128.17-141.76
9 650 730 14.1 36.9-41.5 136.37-152.03
10 565 625 15.1 38.2-42.3 140.04-154.92
11 525 575 16.1 41.6-45.5 152.60-166.98
12 495 545 17.1 45.6-50.2 167.16-184.05
13 465 515 18 48.7-54 178.68-197.90
14 435 485 18.9 51.5-57.5 189.01-210.73
15 405 455 19.8 54.3-61 198.99-223.56
16 375 425 20.7 55.8-63.3 204.74-232.04
17 345 395 21.6 57.1-65.4 209.48-239.84
18 325 380 22.4 59-69 216.29-252.89
19 305 355 23.3 61.1-71.1 224.11-260.85
20 285 340 24.1 62-74 227.50-271.40
21 273 329 24.9 64.6-77.9 236.94-285.54
22 263 319 25.7 67.4-81.8 247.16-299.79
23 252 310 26.5 70-85.8 255.76-314.63
24 243 302 27.2 71.8-89.2 263.29-327.22
25 235 294 28 74.5-125 273.32-341.94
26 227 287 28.7 76.7-97 281.41-355.79
27 220 282 29.5 79.7-102.2 292.26-374.62
28 214 276 30.2 82.2-106.1 301.55-388.91
29 208 271 30.9 84.66-110.3 310.41-404.42
30 203 267 31.6 87.4-115 320.51-421.56
31 198 264 32.3 90.1-121.5 330.26-440.34
 32 194 260 33 93.1-124.8 341.51-457.70
33 190 257 33.7 96.2-130.1 352.58-476.91
34 187 254 34.4 99.7-135.4 365.39-496.31
35 183 252 35.1 102.4-141 375.49-517.07

Table 3 shown that older pine stand cause the increase of reducing carbon emision i.e., young
pine stand (5 year old) reduce 86.24 Ton/Ha of CO2 atmosphere and increase to 375.49
Ton/Ha of CO2 atmosphere at 35 year old.

IV. CONCLUCION AND SUGGESTION

1. The relationship between pine stand age and diameter give high detemination
coefisience i.e., 97,91%
2. The relationship between pine total dry weight and diameter give high detemination
coefisience i.e., 95,74%
3. The relationship between carbon content of pine stand and diameter give high
detemination coefisience i.e., 95,13%
4. The three equations can be used to predict/estimate the free variable with high
acuracy.

REFERENCES

Foley, G. 1993. Pemanasan Global. Yayasan Obor, Jakarta.

Handoko, A. Sugandhy dan Gunardi. 1996. Inventory of Greenhouse Gases Emissions and
Sinks in Indonesia. The State Ministry of Environment Republic Of Indonesia.
JICA and FORDA, 2002. Measurement of Biomass in Forests

JIFPRO, 2000. Manual of Biomass Measurements in Plantation and Regenerated Vegetation.

JIFPRO and JOPP, 2001 Manual of Biomass Measurements

Murdiyarso, D. 1999. Perlindungan Atmosfer Melalui Perdagangan Karbon : Paradigma Baru

dalam Sektor Kehutanan. Orasi Ilmiah. Guru Besar tetap Ilmu Atmosfer, Fak.
Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, IPB, Bogor.
Retnowati, E. 1998. Kontribusi Hutan Tanaman Eucalyptus Grandis Maiden Sebagai Rosot
Karbon di Tapanuli Utara. Bul. Penelitian Hutan. No.611 : 1-10. Pusat Penelitian dan
Pengembangan dan Konservasi Alam, Bogor.