Carbon Storage of Mangrove Forests in Sarawak, Malaysia Seca Gandaseca, Chadra Iman Arianto, Empi Rambok and Ahmad Mustapha Mohamad Pazi
1. Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
2. Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, Jalan Nyabau, 97008 Bintulu, Sawarak, Malaysia 3. Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Abstract
Mangrove forest is one of the fifth forest types found in Sarawak and its existence is beneficial for economic activities and ecology balancing. Mangrove forest plays an important role to sustain the ecosystem and ecology. It can be beneficially used as buffer zone to protect seashores, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. Mangrove forest in Sarawak has decreased for decades because of some anthropogenic activities and conversion of mangrove forests for economically purposes. The objective of this study is to determine and compare the carbon storage in two different mangrove forests in Sarawak, i.e., Wildlife Sanctuary Sibuti, Miri (WSSM) mangrove forest and Awat-Awat Lawas Limbang (AALL) mangrove forest. Both of mangrove forests were dominated by mangrove tree species of Rhyzophora apiculata. Soil mangrove forest were collected randomly using a peat auger at a depth of 0 to 30 cm and a total of 40 samples were collected. The total C content of soil samples was analyzed using CHNS analyzer (TruSpec Micro Elemental Analyzer (NCHS), LECO, USA). As the result, soil total carbon at WSSM was found 12.11%, and at AALL was found 2.64%. Significant result and amount of soil total carbon from humic acid recorded at both study areas and seasonal variation concluded that the mangrove soil have potential as carbon storage. Sibuti mangrove forest as a wildlife sanctuary has a higher of carbon storage because of less anthropogenic activities compare to AALL mangrove forest. As conclusion, soil of WSSM mangrove forest is better than AALL mangrove forest as for location effect while during seasonal sampling comparison were showed higher content of soil total carbon.
Keywords: Carbon Storage, Mangrove, Malaysia
Topic: Topik A: Mangroves for carbon sink FOLU 2030
