TITLE:
Effect of Soil Fertility and Planting Density on the Partitioning of the Above-Ground Biomass of Eucalyptus in a Plantation (Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo)
AUTHORS:
Hugues-Yvan Gomat, Chrissy Garel Makouanzi-Ekomono, Suspense Averti Ifo, Nzaba Miyouna Dulvin, Ulrich Mayinguindi, Ruben Pambou, Florian Mézerette, Philippe Santenoise, Saint-Andre Laurent
KEYWORDS:
Biomass, Carbon, Plantation, Eucalyptus, Competition Effect, Soil Fertility
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Ecology,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: Afforestation and reforestation are useful approaches to improve carbon sequestration. With the advent of forest plantations, growing environment conditions have become increasingly restrictive for light, soil nutrients, and interactions between trees to acquire available resources. Tree biomass data are essential for understanding the forest carbon cycle and plant adaptations to the environment. The distribution of tree biomass depends on the sum of multiple stand conditions. The data are from a dedicated experiment with two very contrasting areas of fertility, and two planting densities, including a high density at planting in order to achieve thinning. The plant material consists of the high-performance clones of Eucalyptus urophylla × E. grandis and the reference clone E. PF1. We hypothesize that the distribution of biomass changes as the intensity of competition changes and that this is accelerated by the fertility of the sites in time. The results indicate that fertilization, planting density and clones have an impact on biomass partitioning.