Download Management & Engineering the Interference Analysis in Guangdong Province of China

Management & Engineering 05 (2011) 1838-5745
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Management & Engineering
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Measurements on Carbon Sink Benefits of Coastal Shelterbelt and
the Interference Analysis in Guangdong Province of China
Lan Gao, Yi Li
College of Economics and Management, South China Agriculture University, 510642, China
KEYWORDS
Coastal shelterbelt,
Carbon sink benefits,
Nature interference,
Human interference
ABSTRACT
Through the econometric study on carbon sink benefits, the result shows that the Coastal
Shelterbelt System in Guangdong plays an active role in the carbon fixation and climate
change mitigation, which is important to the development of low carbon economy in
Guangdong Province. However, a variety of factors from natural environment and human
activities will affect performance of the carbon sink about Coastal Shelterbelt; as a result, it
is difficult to reach the its ideal level of effectiveness. This paper examines the route of
interference factors acting on the carbon sink of Coastal Shelterbelt, and provides ideas and
methods for regional ecological construction and sustainable development.
© ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD
1 Instruction
Since entering the modern industrial society, along with a large number of mining and fossil fuel use, concentrations of CO2 and
other greenhouse gases in atmosphere continue to rise, which is the main features of global climate change and is breaking the heat
balance of the Earth's surface, changing the structure and function of land ecosystems, threatening human survival and health. So,
how to prevent further warming of global climate and resolve a series of serious ecological problems have become the focus of
attention by all the countries in the world.
In order to reduce the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, there are only two ways: reducing the gas emissions (carbon source),
or increasing the absorption of greenhouse gases (carbon sinks). The latter could be realized mainly through the photosynthesis of
forests and plants. As the principal of terrestrial ecosystems, forest concentrates about 85% of the terrestrial biomass, stores
72%~98% of the organic carbon in terrestrial ecosystems (about 11.8PgC) and increases year by year (0.178PgC per year)[1][2]. On
the other hand, harvesting of forest will release carbon which had been fixed, and then become a major carbon source of atmospheric
CO2. Therefore, the vegetation and soil of the forest ecosystems plays a "sink - Library - source" role in the global carbon cycle,
having an irreplaceable function for carbon fixation.
Guangdong Province is one of the most economically developed provinces in China. Building an "Ecological province" has been
regarded as an important development goal by Guangdong Province for a long time. To this end, a number of ecological projects,
such as water conservation forest, coastal shelterbelt and nature reserves construction, have been put into practice and obtain
significant results. Among them, the coastal shelterbelt construction is one of the projects which have the largest investment, most
extensive coverage area and maximum numbers of participants. This paper is targeted to the coastal shelterbelt in Guangdong and
will calculate its carbon sink benefits after completing Phase II of the project. The study can provide references for carbon sink
measurement on the coastal shelterbelt and other reforestation projects.
English edition copyright © ST. PLUM-BLOSSOM PRESS PTY LTD
DOI: 10. 5503/J.ME.2011.05.012
84
2 Project Overview
The primary purpose of coastal shelterbelt construction project in China is disaster prevention and mitigation and maintenance of
Homeland Security. The implementation of PhaseⅠ (1991 ~ 2000) has achieved preliminary results. But the construction content is
single, construction standards and investment criteria are low because the project was suspended in 2000 because of insufficient
attention. Until the end of 2004, the Indian Ocean tsunami triggered peoples’ reflection about a shortage of ecological construction in
coastal areas. And then, the State Forestry Administration introduced the "Planning of the National coastal shelterbelt Phase II" (2006
~ 2015) and related legislation officially in 2007. New phase of the project tries to gain a key breakthrough in the target location,
system layout, contents and levels and so on.
Guangdong Province is located in the south of Chinese Mainland, with a coastline of 5796.8km, which is the longest coastline of the
provinces in China. Based on the phaseⅠ, construction of Phase II of the coastal shelterbelt will extend from shallow waters to
inland, composed by three building levels: mangrove forest for wave dissipation, coastal forest and the deep shelter belt.
Figure 1 Three Components of Coastal Shelterbelt Construction
Project area distributes along the province's coastline and is narrow-band-like, covering 17 coastal prefecture-level cities, 60 counties
(cities, districts), land area 83038.6hm2, accounting for 46.2% of the total area of the province. In the area, there are complex
topography, many rivers and lakes, vast seas, diverse climate and important stopover and wintering ground of international migratory.
Meanwhile, the project area is the most developed economy and the most dynamic regions in Guangdong Province, including Pearl
River Delta and three special economic zones Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou, concentrating 65.5% of the population of the province,
accounting for 94.4% GDP of the province. There are also complete industry categories, strong sense of commodity economy and a
high degree of export-oriented.
Figure 2 The coverage of Coastal Shelterbelt Construction in Guangdong
According to “Planning of the Guangdong coastal shelterbelt Phase II” (2006~2015), this paper evaluate the carbon sink benefits of
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coastal shelterbelt in Guangdong after 10 years construction (2006~2015), with a discount rate of 7% on a baseline of 2005.
3 Estimation on Carbon Sink Benefit
At present, the main methods for estimating carbon sink are: biomass method, method of accumulation, biomass inventory method,
eddy covariance method, box-type method [3]. The biomass method was used most commonly. It is estimated by the use of biomass
and carbon content in the product of dry matter to calculate carbon storage in forest ecosystems. There are many advantages of this
method, such as direct clear, technically feasible, and strong comparative.
3.1 Biomass assessment
Forest biomass is defined as all the weight of dry matter accumulated in forest plant in unit time, including the biomass in main storry
arbor species, undergrowth arbor species, shrub layer and herbaceous layer. Biomass per plant is made up of biomass in the stem,
branch, leaves, roots and other organs. Unit of biomass is different in different types of biomass. Therefore, the types of forest plant
and their biomass formed by the coastal shelterbelt construction must be made clear at first. According to the plan, the quantity of
coastal shelterbelt construction Phase II in Guangdong is that Mangrove Forest 26676.9 hm2, Coastal Backbone Forest Strip 37093.4
hm2 and Deep Shelter Belt 577246.8 hm2.
According to the ecosystem monitoring and evaluation for Guangdong forest, we use the biomass models to estimate biomass in
forest plant biomass and utilize different variable model estimation to calculate biomass of different forest layers. Model variables for
biomass in main story arbor species are DBH, tree height of sample plot and sample trees. Model variables for biomass in
undergrowth arbor species are canopy density, average height and average diameter. Model variables for biomass in shrub layer are
shrub cover, average height, average diameter, etc. And then, model variables for biomass in herbaceous layer are herb cover, age,
height, etc. This paper measures the biomass per unit area of forest vegetation of forest land in Guangdong Province
comprehensively.
Table 1 Biomass Statistics of Woodland Per Unit Area
Species group
Total
Sample
number
1712
Proportion
Main storry
Biomass
Subtotal Trunk Branch
Leaf
Field
layer
layer
5.3427
7.6746
1.5894
11.1
15.9
3.3
Root
48.3479 33.7412 17.4767 6.0106 3.3588 6.8951
100.0
Shrub
Undergrowth
69.8
36.1
12.4
6.9
14.3
Pine
395
39.0604 24.2552 13.6148 4.1408 2.9628 3.5368
2.9702
9.8317
2.0033
Cedar
197
50.1461 37.7961 18.5401 6.0417 6.7620 6.4523
3.4522
6.8889
2.0089
Broad-leaved
475
78.6284 56.0263 28.2476 10.9092 3.8501 13.0194
10.7684
10.2475 1.5862
71
34.5453 25.6137 13.7359 4.0916 4.0561 3.7300
1.7612
5.6045
1.5659
152
56.6782 37.9868 20.0185 6.4414 3.7383 7.7885
7.6300
9.1263
1.9350
Eucalyptus
85
29.1394 19.5011 12.5598 1.7975 1.1295 4.0143
2.9268
5.2687
1.4428
Bamboo
78
66.5559 54.7116 26.3012 9.8874 4.9565 13.5663
4.9219
5.8185
1.1040
Economic forest
259
5.3260
1.0075
1.3279
0.6429
Mixed
coniferous
Mixed
broadleaf-conifer
2.3478 1.2939 0.3431 0.3095 0.4012
Species selections of the three layers of coastal shelterbelt construction in Guangdong are as follows: Mangrove Forest building
based on shrubs mangrove, with fine tree species of Sonneratia apetala, Kandelia candel, Aricennia marina, Aegiceras corniculatum,
etc, classed as broad-leaved forest; Coastal Backbone Forest Strip composed of the Casuarina equisetifolia L mainly, assisted by
Taiwan Acacia, Pinus caribaea, slash pine, etc, classed as mixed coniferous forest; Deep Shelter Belt made up of different types of
forests such as soil and water conservation forests, water conservation forests, protection forests, etc, with Hibiscus tiliaceus, Schima
superba, Acacia confuse, Acacia auriculaeformis, etc as the dominant tree species, belonging to mixed coniferous and broadleaf
forest. Through the Phase II of forestation, total biomass per year of coastal shelterbelt will be achieved:
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Table 2 Biomass per Year of Coastal Shelterbelt Construction PhaseⅡ in Guangdong
Increment in forest
total biomass per year
t/hm
2
hm / a
t/ hm2·
a
Broad-leaved
78.6284
2667.69
209756.2
Mixed coniferous
34.5453
3709.34
128140.3
56.6782
57724.68
3271731
Type
Forest Properties
Mangrove
Coastal Backbone
Forest Strip
Deep shelter belt
Mixed
broadleaf-conifer
biomass
2
Proportional relationship between carbon fixation and oxygen making of forest is determined by chemical reaction equation of
photosynthesis. And then, following the actual forest area, the annual volume growth and the weight of branches and roots, the
number of CO2 fixation by forest could be calculated. Formula using this method is as follows:
n
S V
YC= a·
i 1
i
i
Where: YC is the amount of carbon fixation of coastal shelterbelt biomass (million t);
a is the amount of carbon fixation of dry matter per 1t (t);
Vi is the output of coastal shelterbelt per area (t/ hm2)
Si is calculated area of coastal shelterbelt (hm2)
According to above formula, carbon fixing and oxygen releasing of coastal shelterbelt in Guangdong are calculated as:
Table 3 Balanced Schedule for Oxygen and Carbon of Coastal Shelterbelt in Guangdong
Forest belt
Total biomass per
year
CO2 absorption
O2 releasing
carbon storage
CO2=1.6123Wi
O2=1.1724 Wi
C=0.4399Wi
Mangrove
209756.2
338181
245918.2
92083
128140.3
206620
150245.8
56258.9
3271731
527433
3835777.4
1436289.9
Coastal Backbone Forest
Strip
Deep shelter belt
PS: 1.6123, 1.1724 and 0.4399 are coefficients of assimilation CO2, release O2 and carbon storage per ton of forest plants respectively.
3.2 Value Assessment
Currently, there are considerable controversies on the economy method of physical quantity conversion of CO 2 fixation at home and
abroad, representative views of which include: industry cost method, planting cost method, carbon tax method, and the greenhouse
effect loss method. The first method is adopted in this study. According to the carbon sink per unit area and unit volume of the forest,
the industrial costs of CO2 transformation (1,200 yuan / t), and the market approximation coefficient of the 0.2, calculation formula is
as below:
V1=Y×P×r ×（1+i）n
=（338181+206620+527433）×1200×0.2×1.0710=50621.9×104 yuan/a
Similarly, the formula of the oxygen effective is:
V 2=Y×P×r×（1+i）n
=（338181+206620+527433）×1800×0.2×1.0710=75932.9×104 yuan /a
PS: The forest oxygen benefit of Guangdong coastal shelter is calculated by industrial oxygen cost1,800 yuan/t and the market
approximation coefficient of the 0.2.
Through the coastal shelterbelt construction phase Ⅱin Guangdong, carbon sink benefits will reach 506.219 million yuan / a, with
oxygen release efficiency 759.329 million yuan / a. Thus, it can be seen that construction of coastal shelterbelt could not only play an
important role to defense typhoons, tsunamis and other natural disasters, safeguard the land security, but also help to strengthen the
carbon sink capacity, develop the trade in carbon sink, and enhance regional response to climate change.
4 Interference Factors Acting on Achievement of Carbon Sink Benefits
Although the construction of coastal shelterbelt has great sink benefits, but its achievement must meet two basic conditions: quantity
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and quality. Both of them must conform to the corresponding building requirements. But in reality, various disturbances from nature
and social, which influence the construction of the project deeply, will lead to carbon sink benefits of coastal shelterbelt in
Guangdong difficult to reach the ideal level.
4.1 Natural interferences
The natural environment is important condition for growth and regeneration of plants and suitable natural conditions is conducive to
carbon cycle in the forest communities. Various kinds of interferences from natural, such as natural disasters, loss of soil nutrients,
disease and pest injury and so on restrict the carbon sink function of coastal shelterbelt. Natural interferences consist of endogenous
interferences (such as soil nutrients decreased, topography and location impact, single tree structure, etc.) and exogenous
interferences (such as typhoons, invasive species, pests and diseases), of which the main types are as follows:
(1) Soil Nutrient Loss
Because of different soil types provided with different physical and chemical properties, their abilities to absorb and store carbon are
not the same. The nutritional status and nutrient flows of different soil types are likely to affect the relative amount and absolute
amount of carbon accumulation in vegetation and soil plantations [4]. Sandy soil of eastern and western coastal in Guangdong
province accounts for 22% of the entire coastline, and coastal sandy site is extremely degraded. Adverse weather conditions such as
drought and high winds not only led to scarcity of local native species, but also are difficult for exotic species to adapt. Casuarina
shelter forest plants in the barren sandy soil both defense typhoon and consume soil fertility strongly. Meanwhile, moisture
imbalance of the sand can cause slow-growing and then decline, dry and die of Casuarina forest. Therefore, the survival rate of
Casuarina backbone forest is low and it is almost impossible to achieve corresponding biomass.
(2) Natural Disasters
Typhoon is a high frequency of natural disturbances in coastal areas of Guangdong, often accompanied by heavy rains. Studies
suggest that there is a negative correlation between precipitation and the carbon density of forest vegetation when precipitation
exceeds 3200mm [5]. Furthermore, typhoon and other natural disasters will cause great damage to forest communities’ structure,
leading to numerous impairment and deaths to individual trees, and increasing nutrient loss of forest ecosystem. There are average 4
to 6 - up to 7- typhoons per year landing (40% of the national total) on Guangdong Province, which would undermine the upper
structure of forest communities seriously, and then make the carbon density and carbon stocks declined.
(3) Alien Attack
Research on carbon storage of the forest vegetation concluded that the organic carbon storage in native species is the largest of all
tree species, and native species forestation is favorable to carbon accumulation [6]. However, in the field survey in project area, we
found that the Sonneratia apetala introduced from Bangladesh with fast-growing characteristics and high timber income has become
the preferred mangrove tree species, widely distributed in South China coast; crowd out the living space of kandelia candel and other
native mangrove species. In addition, in Pearl River Delta area, mangrove wetlands also face invasive threats from Spartina
alterniflora Loisel and other alien species. Large-scale planting of exotic fast-growing species such as Foreign Pinus, Eucalyptus,
caused a large area disappear of natural vegetation and a lot of main native species extinction, and thus lead to biological diversity
dropped in the higher levels of food chain and the carbon cycle imbalance.
(4) Warming and Sea Level Rise
As important types of natural disturbance, climate warming and sea-level rise caused by the warming and regional land degradation
are great threat to the coastal shelterbelt, especially to the mangrove wetland. Many scholars believe that the role of the temperature
on carbon storage of forest vegetation is bigger than rainfall and temperature rise will increase the release the carbon from forest soil
and reduce carbon stocks of forest [7]. Sea level rise due to climate warming will also lead to coastal erosion, tidal flat narrowed,
coastal vegetation space diminish, and then result in degradation of mangrove wetlands, reed and a variety of wetland vegetation die.
Geological records show that the average temperature of the Pearl River Delta increased from 14 ~ 16 °C in the past 32 000 years to
the current 22 °C, the growth rate of nearly 50 years even up to 0.3 °C per decade, showing a very significant climate warming law.
Warming and Sea Level Rise will influence the coastal forest ecosystems and their carbon sink function for a very long time in the
future.
4.2 Human Interference
Project area situated in the coastal zone with high active economic has always been strongly influenced by human activities. Human
interference, as represented by reclamation, sewage, logging and other activities, directly and indirectly lead to a series of ecological
environmental deterioration such as the damage of shelter artificial ecosystem, functional decline, shrink of biodiversity, decline in
biological productivity, land productivity recession, loss of forest resources and so on. All of them make the carbon sinks and
protection efficiency of coastal shelterbelt hard to gain.
(1) Reclamation
Historically, reclamation in the Pearl River Delta has great significance for solving the population pressure, promoting
commercialization of agriculture, and driving regional economic at the time. But after entering the 20ec80s, reclamation with the
purpose of aquaculture emerged disorder and excessive state, a large area of mangroves, tidal flats and shallow wetlands are
artificially modified. Since the beginning of 21st century, urban construction and real estate development encroach on wetlands and
woodlands further, resulting in large area of mangrove, casuarina and other forest decline.
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Changes of land use and land cover caused by human activities have direct impacts on carbon storage and carbon cycle in forest and
soil. Land use such as digging ponds to breed shrimp in the forest zone, converting forest land to arable land, urban construction and
so on, will increase the atmospheric CO2 emissions, so that the "carbon sink" possessed of shelter originally would become "carbon
source" finally. Carbon emissions to the atmosphere from land use change are 1.6 Pg per year, taking up about 20% of the total
emissions from human activities [8]. Long-term and continuous conversion use of land and non-conversion use of land on the coastal
shelterbelt will increase the carbon release from terrestrial ecosystem and result in further increase of CO2 concentration in
atmospheric.
(2) Sewage
Due to population growth, urban expansion and urbanization, the rapid development of industrial production, various pollution
discharges from industrial, agricultural pesticides, fertilizers, ship oil and daily life are damaging the soil and water environment of
coastal shelterbelt seriously in Guangdong. Investigation shows, the amount of sewage quantity from land to sea in Guangdong
coastal areas reaches 440.6 billon ton, with total pollutant 3,549,000 ton (excluding offshore oil platform leak), resulting in a large
area of mangrove and casuarina saplings died. A large number of pollutions will not only reduce the survival rate, but also destroy
carbon cycle between forest and soil.
(3) Clear cutting, Selective Cutting and Illegal Logging
Continued growth in demand for wood stimulates the commercial logging of shelter. Growing illegal logging is another important
reason for forest structure and function damage. Although there are expressly provides in the "Management regulations for Coastal
Special Protection Forest” that firewood, grazing, building tombs, quarrying, mining land, mining and other deforestation are
prohibited in the " Coastal Special Protection Forest” by the state. However, field survey in project area of Leizhou Peninsula
informed that many cases of illegally logging occur in local shelter area almost every day, with the amount from several to tens or
even hundreds of trees. Houghton and other studies [9] have shown that carbon storage would fell by 35%, 50% and 15% respectively
in tropical, temperate and boreal forest after harvesting. Moreover, there will be a further loss of carbon storage if failure to restore in
time.
(4) Improper Manual Operation
Through acting on productivity and carbon cycling of forest and soil, proper operation and management can have a positive impact
on carbon sink, storage, and emissions of forests thus affecting the effects of plantations to mitigate the climate change. In fact, the
species introduction, management and protection issues, fuelwood collection, tourism development and other issues existing in the
coastal shelterbelt formed predatory on forest collectively, interfered the growth and carbon sink of shelterbelt. Mainly as follows:
because of the site environment and climate change, Casuarinas species introduced by Guangdong Province in the 60s of last century
showed poor growth and inbreeding depression; In the view of management and protection, net clearing for trees litters cut off
natural circulation of forest ecosystem artificially, causing lower fat levels and productivity of woodland. Furthermore, fuelwood
consumption of the surrounding communities is also increasing year by year and shows predatory; Finally, a large number of resorts,
hotels, restaurants constructions and other tourism development activities on the beach is eroding forest land. Existing extensive
management of coastal shelterbelt will not only cause a decline in forest productivity, but also lead to soil erosion and degradation,
thereby affecting carbon storage in forest plants.
In summary, various kinds of interferences are acting on coastal shelterbelt in Guangdong and will make the carbon sink efficiency
hard to achieve. Interference route is as follows:
Natural
Interferences
Human
Forest area
Three systems of
Biomass
Carbon sink
coastal shelterbelt
formation
benefits
Forest stork
Interferences
Figure 3 Route of Interfere Factors Acting on the Carbon Sink Benefits of Coastal Shelterbelt
5 Conclusion
Forest ecosystems have enormous capacity to absorb carbon and stork carbon. Forest construction and operation have become
important measure of international communities to tackle climate change and slow global warming. Coastal Shelterbelt Construction
is an important forest ecological project in our country. It not only plays an important role to defense maritime natural disasters, but
also has significant benefits of carbon sink. However, its function and role of carbon sinks are affected by many factors. Once the
quantity and quality of forest resources could not reach the construction requirements, the ideal level of effectiveness will be reduced
to different extents. Due to technical constraints, this paper only analysis the interferences from natural and human acting on the
carbon sink functions of coastal shelterbelt qualitatively. Research methods and the accuracy need to be improved further.
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